IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 641 
Acknowledging that the decisions rendered by the United States Supreme 
Court in the so-called Insular Cases rest on the same racist and ethno-
centric assumptions leading to Plessy v. Ferguson’s infamous ‘‘separate 
but equal’’ doctrine, that the legal doctrine emanating from the Insular 
Cases has no place in United States Constitutional law, and that the 
Insular Cases must be rejected in their entirety. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 18, 2019 
Mr. GRIJALVA (for himself, Miss GONZA´LEZ-COLO´N of Puerto Rico, Mr. SAN 
NICOLAS, Mr. SABLAN, and Ms. PLASKETT) submitted the following reso-
lution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in ad-
dition to the Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Acknowledging that the decisions rendered by the United 
States Supreme Court in the so-called Insular Cases 
rest on the same racist and ethnocentric assumptions 
leading to Plessy v. Ferguson’s infamous ‘‘separate but 
equal’’ doctrine, that the legal doctrine emanating from 
the Insular Cases has no place in United States Con-
stitutional law, and that the Insular Cases must be re-
jected in their entirety. 
Whereas the Spanish Kingdom transferred to the United 
States sovereignty over Puerto Rico, the Philippine Is-
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lands, and Guam pursuant to the 1898 Treaty of Paris, 
which put an end to the so-called Spanish-American War; 
Whereas the newly acquired territories were non-contiguous 
archipelagos separated by thousands of miles from the 
United States continental mainland and inhabited by dis-
tinct nationalities made up by peoples whose races, lan-
guages, cultures, and religious beliefs set them apart 
from the dominant Anglo-Saxon societal structure then in 
place in the United States; 
Whereas the constitutional question of whether the United 
States Constitution followed the United States flag into 
these new lands was answered by the United States Su-
preme Court in a series of decisions announced in 1901 
commonly known as the Insular Cases; 
Whereas the same Fuller Court that rendered the discredited 
Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896 also resolved the In-
sular Cases; 
Whereas a fractured United States Supreme Court found 
that the United States Constitution did not follow the 
United States flag into these new far-flung possessions; 
Whereas the United States Supreme Court held that the Car-
ibbean and Pacific possessions were now unincorporated 
territories belonging to the United States but not a part 
of the United States as that phrase is used in the Uni-
formity Clause of the United States Constitution; 
Whereas under the Insular Cases only those rights deemed to 
be fundamental apply to the unincorporated territories; 
Whereas notions of Anglo-Saxon racial and imperialist su-
premacy, together with the perceived racial and cultural 
inferiority of non-White peoples, drove the outcome of the 
Insular Cases; 
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Whereas in 1900, the Eastern Samoan Islands, now known 
as American Samoa, transferred its sovereignty to the 
United States; 
Whereas in 1917, Denmark transferred to the United States 
sovereignty of the Danish West Indies, now known as the 
Virgin Islands of the United States; 
Whereas in 1976, the Northern Mariana Islands entered into 
a covenant with the United States establishing the terri-
tory’s status as a self-governing commonwealth in polit-
ical union with the United States; 
Whereas the Insular Cases today negatively impact a commu-
nity of nearly 4,000,000 Americans living in Puerto Rico, 
Guam, the Virgin Islands of the United States, the Com-
monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Amer-
ican Samoa; 
Whereas the doctrine established by the Insular Cases is still 
used to perpetuate the egregious unequal treatment of 
United States citizens and nationals in the territories; 
Whereas jurists and legal scholars have recognized that the 
Insular Cases rest on reasoning that runs afoul the origi-
nal intent of the framers of the United States Constitu-
tion; and 
Whereas the imperialist and racist ideologies underlying the 
Insular Cases must be rejected: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes the importance of supporting 
equal rights and upholding the interests of Ameri-
cans living in the United States territories; 
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(2) acknowledges that the Insular Cases rest on 
racist and imperialist assumptions that have no 
place in the constitutional landscape of the United 
States; and 
(3) rejects the Insular Cases and their applica-
tion to all present and future cases and controver-
sies. 
Æ 
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