Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1334_8m58.pdf
Page Number: 13.0

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

United States,” even when those officers exercise power in
or related to Puerto Rico. 

III 
A 
The  more  difficult  question  before  us  is  whether  the
Board members are officers of the United States such that 
the Appointments Clause requires Senate confirmation.  If 
they are not officers of the United States, but instead are
some  other  type  of  officer,  the  Appointments  Clause  says 
nothing about them.  (No one suggests that they are “Am-
bassadors,”  “other  public  Ministers  and  Consuls,”  or
“Judges of the supreme Court.”)  And as we shall see, the 
answer to this question turns on whether the Board mem-
bers have primarily local powers and duties.

The language at issue does not offer us much guidance for 
understanding  the  key  term  “of  the  United  States.”    The 
text  suggests  a  distinction  between  federal  officers—offic-
ers  exercising  power  of  the  National  Government—and 
nonfederal officers—officers exercising power of some other 
government.  The Constitution envisions a federalist struc-
ture, with the National Government exercising limited fed-
eral  power  and  other,  local  governments—usually  state 
governments—exercising  more  expansive  power.    But  the 
Constitution recognizes that for certain localities, there will
be  no  state  government  capable  of  exercising  local  power. 
Thus, two provisions of the Constitution, Article I, §8, cl. 17, 
and Article IV, §3, cl. 2, give Congress the power to legislate 
for those localities in ways “that would exceed its powers, 
or at least would be very unusual” in other contexts.  Pal-
more  v.  United  States,  411  U. S.  389,  398  (1973).    Using 
these powers, Congress has long legislated for entities that
are  not  States—the  District  of  Columbia  and  the  Territo-
ries.  See  District  of  Columbia  v.  John  R.  Thompson  Co., 
346 U. S. 100, 104–106 (1953).  And, in doing so, Congress
has both made local law directly and also created structures