The Saint Paul globe., 1900-05-08
JUST As IS MINNESOTA
PUERTO RICO is A PART OF THE
DOMINION OF THE UNITED
STATES
JUDGE LOCaRgl 50 HOLDS
IN HIS DECISION IN THE ORTIZ
CASE HANDED DOWN
YESTERDAY
LEGAL STATUS OF THE ISLAND
For the First Time Fixed by the
Federal Circuit Court, Making
the Decision One of
Wide Interest.

Judge William Lochren, of the United
States circuit court, yesterday supple
mented his oral order remanding Rafael
Ortiz to. Saltwater prison with a written
decision on the legal points raised, ex-
planning his somewhat long and exhaus-
tive discussion of them on the basis that
silence might have seemed to commit
MIN to acquiescence in the arguments
raised in support of his decision, some
of which he did not base it upon.
Ortiz, who is a Puerto Rican, con-
victed of the murder of a United States
soldier, was sent back on the ground that
at the time of his trial by military tri-
bunal, the island was still in a state of
war, as the treaty had not been ratified,
although signed by representatives of
both nations. So the military court was
still in authority.
Judge Lochren holds, however, that
now, since that treaty has been signed.
all provisions of the United States con-
stitution must apply thereto, for the rea-
son that any powers not delegated to
congress by the United States are ex-
pressly reserved to the States, and them
selves and congress only right to leg
islate for the people of Puerto Rico
comes, not from the cession made by
Spain, but from the extension of the
liberties, personal and property rights of
the constitution of the United States to
the people of the ceded territory. If one
clause of the constitution applies to the
island, then all of it must, even If some
of the machinery necessary to the pro-
lection Of these citizens In those rights
may not yet have been set In operation.
ITO assume" says Judge Lochren, that
our national government is capable of
ruling with unlimited power a subject
people, who have neither guarantee to
protect them nor any voice in the gov
ernment, Is the worst form of tyranny
The full opinion of Judge Lochren fol-
lows;
Upon the amended return of c. McC.
Reeve, warden of the Minnesota state
prison at Saltwater, to the writ of habeas
corpus in this case, hearing was had at
the court room in the federal building at
st. Paul ON the I'd and Sd days of May,
1860, the petitioner being produced in court
and represented by his counsel, j. w.
Willis Esq, the United States appearing
by M. d. Purdy, Esq, assistant United
States attorney.
1t now appears that in the war between
the United States and Spain, during the
month of July, 1898, the United States
forces, undec command of Maj. Gen
Miles, Invaded and took military posses
sion of the island of Puerto Rico and
held such possession until the cession of
that island by Spain to the United States
by the treaty of Paris, signed Dec. 10, 1885,
the ratifications of which were exchanged
April II, 1883. That on Oct. l, 1898, by or
der of the president, the military depart
ment of Puerto Rico was established, un-
der the command of Maj. Gen. John R.
Brooke, who was succeeded by Gen. Guy
" Henry Dec. g. 1885, by whose orders a
military commission was appointed to
meet at San Juan on Feb. 20, 1899, for the
trial of such persons as might be brought
before 1t. And on March q, 1S99 the pc
titioner, Rafael Ortiz, was put upon trial
before said military commission upon the
charge of murder of John Burke, private
of Company c, Forty-seventh infantry
on Feb "a, 1899, and of carrying concealed
weapons, and was convicted and sem
fenced to suffer DEATH which sentence
was on May II, 1899, commuted by the
president to imprisonment at hard labor
for life in the Minnesota state prison, at
Saltwater, MINI. This brief statement of
facts will suffice as no objection in re-