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>In April the Supreme Court decided what seemed to be an abstruse case about federal benefits owed to Puerto Ricans. But Justice Neil Gorsuch’s opinion began wi
by dontbenebby 4y ago
>In April the Supreme Court decided what seemed to be an abstruse case about federal benefits owed to Puerto Ricans. But Justice Neil Gorsuch’s opinion began with a startling passage. He asserted that the United States has no business deciding anything for Puerto Rico because our ownership of that island — and by extension other US colonies — is unconstitutional.
Great!
They pay taxes, then look what happened during Hurricane Laura.
This liminal space of "fuck you, pay me, but don't expect the same benefits as the 50 states" needs to end, one way or another[1].
(But I'll defer to people who live or own property there, I don't have any ties to the island beyond the general feeling all Americans should be equal. Something something taxation without representation - it's been a long day, I'm tired.)
[1] https://www.npr.org/2018/05/06/608868104/federal-response-to-puerto-rico-reignites-statehood-push https://www.npr.org/2018/05/06/608868104/federal-response-to...
- ceejayoz 4y agoPuerto Ricans aren’t subject to Federal income tax unless they work for the Federal government. (They still pay payroll taxes, though.)
- dontbenebby 4y agoThanks for pointing this out, I need to be better about specifics when making policy oriented posts.
- eesmith 4y agoThe law which extended American sovereignty to include American Samoa also said that normal American land laws do not apply. https://archive.org/details/modernsamoaitsgo00kees/page/266/mode/2up?q=Cession https://archive.org/details/modernsamoaitsgo00kees/page/266/... Thus, in American Samoa, there are restrictions on what non-Samoans can do with land. https://asbar.org/code-annotated/37-0204-restrictions-on-alienation-of-land/ https://asbar.org/code-annotated/37-0204-restrictions-on-ali... . This sort of discrimination is illegal in the rest of the US, and allowed because of the insular laws. If the insular laws are found unconstitutional, then those restriction on alienation of land are illegal. Which means we'll be breaking (yet again) an agreement we made with indigenous people. The article mentions the American nationals on American Samoa who want American citizenship. While (as I understand it), others in American Samoa want to preserve their traditional landownership practices, instead of letting wealth decide, and don't want this to change.
- dontbenebby 4y agoYeah, that all sounds like bullshit. I recently found out in some Native American areas of the USA you aren't even required to pull over or anything if you're not literally in the tribe. That seems... insane. Like you're gonna drive through the equivalent of a township or county, speed (or worse) and just go fuck you, call the state police? People are really rude, they misunderstand on purpose, then they cry that the world is chaotic.
- jmalicki 4y agoUntil very recently, they couldn't even arrest you for rape on the reservation if you weren't a member of the tribe... only the FBI had jurisdiction and it often wasn't a big enough fish to fry for them to bother. https://indianlaw.org/safewomen/law-was-meant-let-american-indians-prosecute-violence-it-working https://indianlaw.org/safewomen/law-was-meant-let-american-i...
- dontbenebby 4y agoI know. I was avoiding specifics.