Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-303_6khn.pdf
Page Number: 33

10 

UNITED STATES v. VAELLO MADERO 

GORSUCH, J., concurring 

* 

Because no party asks us to overrule the Insular Cases to 
resolve today’s dispute, I join the Court’s opinion.  But the 
time has come to recognize that the Insular Cases rest on a
rotten foundation.  And I hope the day comes soon when the
Court squarely overrules them.  We should follow Justice 
Harlan  and  settle  this  question  right.    Our  fellow  Ameri-
cans in Puerto Rico deserve no less. 

—————— 
the uncomfortable truth that recent attempts to repurpose the Insular
Cases merely drape the worst of their logic in new garb.  At bottom, the 
Constitution’s  restraints  on  federal  power  do  not  turn  on  a  court’s  un-
schooled assessment of a Territory’s local customs or contemporary cur-
rents  in  public  opinion  or  academic  theory.    Our  government  may  not 
deny constitutionally protected individual rights out of (purportedly) be-
nign neglect any more than it may out of animus.