Insular Cases

Common card · No. 437708

The Insular Cases are a series of opinions by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1901 pertaining to the status of U.S. territories acquired in the Spanish–American War. The term "insular" refers to the territories that were islands administered by the War Department's Bureau of Insular Affairs. Today, the legal rulings outlined in the Insular Cases continue to govern the United States' territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In one of the cases, the Court established the landmark doctrine of territorial incorporation. This doctrine is the legal principle that makes distinctions on where the Constitution applies in regards to non-contiguous territories of the United States. Incorporated territories are those that the United States Congress deems on a path to statehood, and where the Constitution is applied fully. Alaska and Hawaii were former incorporated territories that are now admitted into...

Read on Wikipedia