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Page Number: 57

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

11.  Those scenarios broadly conformed with the template
of the organic statute establishing the Louisiana Territory,
2 Stat. 245, which Congress passed as an “emergency pro-
visio[n]” shortly after territorial acquisition in order “to pre-
serve  order  until  a  proper  government  could  be  put  in
place,” D. Currie, The Constitution in Congress, The Jeffer-
sonians: 1801–1829, p. 112 (2001).5 

As for the numerous instances where officers with terri-
torial responsibilities were popularly elected or appointed
by  territorial  officials,  see  ante,  at  11,  Congress  typically
transitioned  to  these  arrangements  after  establishing  an
initial territorial government.  The Northwest Ordinance, 
for example, allowed the Governor to appoint “magistrates
and other civil officers” “during the continuance of [a] tem-
porary government” established at the outset of the North-
west Territory’s existence, as “necessary for the preserva-
tion of the peace and good order.”  Act of Aug. 7, 1789, ch. 
8, 1 Stat. 51, n. (a).  As soon as the Territory met a certain 
population  threshold,  however,  the  territorial  population
was to directly elect members of the lower house of the ter-
ritorial legislature, which would in turn play a role in se-
lecting the civil officers of the territorial government.  Ibid.  
Following the Northwest Ordinance’s lead, the organic stat-
utes for many subsequent territories contemplated similar 

—————— 

5 See 2 Stat. 245 (1803) (Louisiana) (authorizing the President to “take 
possession of, and occupy the territory,” to “employ any part of the army
and navy of the United States” in doing so, and to establish a “temporary
government”  “until  . . .  provision  for  the  temporary  government  . . .  be 
sooner made by Congress”); cf. 3 Stat. 524 (1819) (Florida) (similar); 31 
Stat. 910 (1901) (Philippines) (authorizing the establishment of a “tem-
porary  government”  pending  “the  establishment  of  a  permanent  civil
government”); 33 Stat. 429 (1904) (Panama Canal Zone) (authorizing the 
President “[t]o provide for the temporary government” of the Territory
“until . . . provision for the temporary government . . . be sooner made by
Congress”).