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Page Number: 49

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FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT AND MANAGEMENT BD. FOR 
PUERTO RICO v. AURELIUS INVESTMENT, LLC 
SOTOMAYOR, J., concurring in judgment 

control or interference by the Congress in respect of inter-
nal government and administration”).

Based on those explicit representations, the United Na-
tions General Assembly declared that the people of Puerto
Rico “ha[d] been invested with attributes of political sover-
eignty which clearly identify the status of self-government 
attained  . . .  as  that  of  an  autonomous  political  entity.”
G. A. Res. 748, U. N. GAOR, 8th Sess., Supp. No. 17, U. N. 
Doc. A/2630 (Nov. 27, 1953).  And consistent with that dec-
laration,  the  Federal  Government  promptly  stopped  com-
plying with the Charter’s reporting obligations with respect 
to Puerto Rico (and has never since recommenced).  Thus, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  international  community  looking  in,  as 
well as of the Federal Government looking out, Puerto Rico
has long enjoyed autonomous reign over its internal affairs. 
Indeed, were the Federal Government’s representations to
the United Nations merely aspirational, the United States’ 
compliance with its international legal obligations would be
in substantial doubt.  See Lawson & Sloane, The Constitu-
tionality of Decolonization by Associated Statehood: Puerto 
Rico’s Legal Status Reconsidered, 50 Boston College L. Rev. 
1123, 1127 (2009) (arguing that if Puerto Rico remains “just 
another territory subject to Congress’ plenary power under 
the Territories Clause,” “the United States . . . is in viola-
tion  of  its  international  legal  obligations  vis-à-vis  Puerto 
Rico”).

There  can  be  little  question,  then,  that  the  compact  al-
tered  the  relationship  between  the  Federal  Government
and Puerto Rico.  At a minimum, the post-compact develop-
ments, including this Court’s precedents, indicate that Con-
gress  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Puerto  Rican  people  the
authority to establish their own government, replete with
officers  of  their  own  choosing,  and  that  this  grant  of  self-
government  was  not  an  empty  promise.  That  history
prompts  serious  questions  as  to  whether  the Board  mem-
bers may be territorial officers of Puerto Rico when they are