Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1334_8m58.pdf
Page Number: 60

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

23 

SOTOMAYOR, J., concurring in judgment 

made in the context of a territory’s evolution toward state-
hood,” and that “[t]his context was the ‘restriction . . . nec-
essarily implied in its terms’ ”).  Much less do those cases 
inform whether and how Congress may validly act on behalf 
of  a  Territory  like  Puerto  Rico,  as  to  which  Congress  has
expressly (and perhaps irrevocably in the absence of com-
mon consent) “relinquished . . . control over . . . [territorial] 
affairs.”  Flores de Otero, 426 U. S., at 597; see also Rodri-
guez, 457 U. S., at 8 (describing Puerto Rico as “an autono-
mous political entity, ‘sovereign over matters not ruled by
the  [Federal]  Constitution’ ”  (quoting  Calero-Toledo,  416 
U. S.,  at  673)).    Indeed,  as  the  same  cases  expressly 
acknowledged,  Congress’  authority  under  the  Territories
Clause may “continu[e]” only “until granted away.”  County 
of Yankton, 101 U. S., at 133; see also supra, at 15–16. 

* 

* 

* 

These cases raise serious questions about when, if ever, 
the Federal Government may constitutionally exercise au-
thority  to  establish  territorial  officers  in  a  Territory  like 
Puerto Rico, where Congress seemingly ceded that author-
ity  long  ago  to  Puerto  Rico  itself.    The  1950s  compact  be-
tween the Federal Government and Puerto Rico undoubt-
edly  carried  ramifications  for  Puerto  Rico’s  status  under 
federal and international law; the same may be true of the
Appointments  Clause  analysis  here.    After  all,  the  long-
awaited  promise  of  Public  Law  600’s  compact  between 
Puerto Rico and the Federal Government seemed to be that 
the people of Puerto Rico may choose their own territorial 
officers, rather than have such officers foisted on the Terri-
tory by the Federal Government. 

Viewed against that backdrop, the result of these cases
seems anomalous.  The Board members, tasked with deter-
mining the financial fate of a self-governing Territory, exist 
in  a  twilight  zone  of  accountability,  neither  selected  by