Question: does puerto rico have to follow us laws

Answer: Yes, Constitutionally, Puerto Rico is subject to the Congress' plenary powers under the territorial clause of Article IV, sec. 3, of the U.S. Constitution. U.S. federal law applies to Puerto Rico, even though Puerto Rico is not a state of the American Union and their residents have no voting representation in the U.S. Congress. Because of the establishment of the Federal Relations Act of 1950, all federal laws that are ``not locally inapplicable'' are automatically the law of the land in Puerto Rico. Following the 1950 and 1952 legislation, only two district court decisions have held that a particular federal law, which does not specifically exclude or treat Puerto Rico differently, is inapplicable to Puerto Rico. The more recent decision was vacated on appeal. Efrén Rivera Ramos, Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, clarified the meaning of plenary powers, explaining, ``The government of a state derives its powers from the people of the state, whereas the government of a territory owes its existence wholly to the United States. The Court thus seems to equate plenary power to exclusive power. The U.S. government could exert over the territory power that it could not exercise over the states.'' Ramos quotes Justice Harlan, writing in Grafton v. United States, 206 U.S. 333 (1907), ``The jurisdiction and authority of the United States over that territory (referring to the Philippines) and its inhabitants, for all legitimate purposes of government is paramount,''. Ramos then goes on to argue ``This power, however, is not absolute, for it is restrained by some then-undefined fundamental rights possessed by anyone subject to the authority of the U.S. government.''