Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/349/1/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:54:51+00:00

Document:
By the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands, Congress delegated to their Legislative Assembly authority to enact laws on subjects "of local application." The Legislative Assembly enacted a divorce law, § 9(a) of which provides that, if the plaintiff has been continuously within the district for six weeks and the defendant has been personally served or enters a general appearance, the District Court of the Virgin Islands shall have jurisdiction "without further reference to domicile."
Held: Section 9(a) exceeds the power of the Legislative Assembly, and hence the District Court of the Virgin Islands has no jurisdiction to grant a divorce on a mere showing of continuous presence of the plaintiff in the Virgin Islands for six weeks and entry by the defendant of a general appearance and consent to a default decree. Pp. 349 U. S. 2-16.
(a) The Organic Acts of Alaska and Hawaii limit divorce jurisdiction to cases where the plaintiffs have resided in the territory for at least two years, and it is not reasonable to believe that Congress was less concerned with the scope of divorce jurisdiction in the Virgin Islands, an unincorporated territory, or that it intended to grant them unrestricted freedom in the field of divorce legislation. P. 349 U. S. 9.
(b) The term "local application" in the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands implies limitation to subjects having relevant ties within the territory, to laws growing out of the needs of the Islands and governing relations within them. P. 349 U. S. 10.
(c) In the light of its legislative history, it is obvious that § 9(a) of the Virgin Islands divorce law was not concerned with the needs and interests of the local population, but was passed for the purpose of encouraging persons from other jurisdictions to visit the Virgin Islands to obtain divorces. Pp. 349 U. S. 10-16.
(d) In the circumstances, it cannot be concluded that, if Congress had consciously been asked to give the Virgin Islands Legislative Assembly power to do what no State has ever attempted, it would have done so. P. 349 U. S. 16.
has been personally served within the district or enters a general appearance in the action, then the Court shall have jurisdiction of the action and of the parties thereto without further reference to domicile or to the place where the marriage was solemnized or the cause of action arose."
The circumstances of the case and the course of the litigation are briefly stated. Petitioner filed suit for divorce because of "irreconcilable incompatibility" [Footnote 2] in the District Court of the Virgin Islands on March 16, 1953. The complaint alleged that she had been a "resident and inhabitant" of the Islands for more than six weeks prior to the commencement of the action, that respondent was not a resident of the Islands, and that the couple had no children under 21. Through Virgin Islands counsel -- authorized by a power of attorney executed in New York -- respondent entered an appearance, waived personal service, denied petitioner's allegations, and filed a "Waiver and Consent" to "hearing of this cause as if by default" and to "such findings of fact and conclusions of law and decree as to the Court may seem just and reasonable."
the complaint for want of jurisdiction over petitioner.
The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, sitting en banc, affirmed, 214 F.2d 820, on the basis of its decision in the Alton case, 207 F.2d 667. In that case, the Court of Appeals, likewise sitting en banc and three judges dissenting, held § 9(a) in violation of "due process" guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment and the Virgin Islands Organic Act. This Court had granted certiorari in the Alton case, 347 U.S. 911, but intervening mootness aborted disposition on the merits. 347 U. S. 610. The obvious importance of the issue which brought the Alton case here led us to grant certiorari in this case. 348 U.S. 810. In view of the lack of genuine adversary proceedings at any stage in this litigation, the outcome of which could have far-reaching consequences on domestic relations throughout the United States, the Court invited specially qualified counsel "to appear and present oral argument as amicus curiae in support of the judgment below." 348 U.S. 885.
We need not consider any of the substantive questions passed on below, and we intimate nothing about them. For we find that Congress did not give the Virgin Islands Legislative Assembly power to enact a law with the radiations of § 9(a).
A vital distinction was made between "incorporated" and "unincorporated" territories. [Footnote 5] The first category had the potentialities of statehood like unto continental territories. The United States Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, fully applied to an "incorporated" territory. See, e.g., Rassmussen v. United States, 197 U. S. 516. The second category described possessions of the United States not thought of as future States. To these only some essentials, withal undefined, of the Constitution extended. See, e.g., Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U. S. 298. The incidence of the differentiation fell in two areas: (a) the right of the individual to trial by jury and similar protections, e.g., Balzac v. Porto Rico, supra; (b) the right of the Federal Government to tax territorial products on a nonuniform basis, e.g., Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U. S. 244.
significant, however, that, while the litigation was in progress, Congress forbade territories to pass "local" or "special" divorce laws. 24 Stat. 170.
"all subjects of local application not inconsistent with . . . this title or the laws of the United States made applicable to said islands, but no law shall be enacted which would impair rights existing or arising by virtue of any treaty entered into by the United States, nor shall the lands or other property of nonresidents be taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents,"
49 Stat. 1811, 48 U.S.C. § 1405r; (3) enacted a due process clause for the Islands, 49 Stat. 1815, 48 U.S.C. § 1406g; and (4) gave the District Court jurisdiction over "[a]ll cases of divorce," 49 Stat. 1814, 48 U.S.C. § 1406(4).
President an absolute veto over legislation. Congress had the customary reserved power to annul legislation. 49 Stat. 1810, 48 U.S.C. § 1405o.
By virtue of the 1936 Organic Act, the Legislative Assembly passed the 1944 divorce law making six weeks' "residence" by an "inhabitant" sufficient for divorce jurisdiction. [Footnote 10] In 1952, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit construed "inhabitant" and "residence" to imply "domiciliary" and "domicile." Burch v. Burch, 195 F.2d 799. The legislature thereupon provided that six weeks' "physical presence" was adequate as a basis for divorce. The Governor vetoed this amendment. [Footnote 11] To overcome the veto, § 9(a) was enacted. Bill No. 55, 17th Legislative Assembly of the Virgin Islands of the United States, 3d Sess., 1953.
In giving content to the power to pass legislation having "local application," two considerations at once obtrude. The phrase most liberally interpreted can be no broader than "all rightful subjects of legislation." [Footnote 13] Yet, in the Organic Acts of the "incorporated" territories, Alaska and Hawaii, there is specific limitation on divorce jurisdiction to cases where the plaintiff has resided in such territory for at least two years. [Footnote 14] 37 Stat. 514, 48 U.S.C. § 45 (Alaska); 31 Stat. 150, 48 U.S.C. § 519 (Hawaii). It is hardly reasonable to believe that Congress was less concerned with the scope of divorce jurisdiction in the "unincorporated" possession of the Virgin Islands, so temptingly near the mainland, and that it intended to give them unrestricted freedom in this sensitive field of legislation. The Virgin Islands divorce law, with the exception of substantive grounds drawn from Danish law, copied that of Alaska. See Compiled Laws of the Territory of Alaska (1913) §§ 1293-1306; cf. Terrill v.
Terrill, 2 Alaska 475; Wilson v. Wilson, 10 Alaska 616. Secondly, "local application" obviously implies limitation to subjects having relevant ties within the territory, [Footnote 15] to laws growing out of the needs of the Islands and governing relations within them. An example is provided by Puerto Rico v. Shell Co., supra, which involved the validity of a territorial antitrust law.
"It requires no argument to demonstrate that a conspiracy in restraint of trade within the borders of Puerto Rico is clearly a local matter, and that it falls within the precise terms of the power granted. . . ."
"the local government has all civil and judicial power necessary to govern the Islands. . . . It would be strange if a government so remote should be held bound to wait for the action of Congress in a matter that might touch its life unless dealt with at once and on the spot."
Tiaco v. Forbes, 228 U.S. at 228 U. S. 557.
In 1950, the Virgin Islands had 26,665 inhabitants in its 133 square miles; for at least 20 years, the population had remained relatively static, and the 1952 census estimates indicate a slight decline. In 1940, 34 divorces were granted in the Islands (1.4 per 1,000 population). In 1951, the figure had reached 312 (12.5 per 1,000). This, per capita, represented the second highest figure for any State or Territory of the United States. Moreover, the Virgin Islands far exceeded its leader, Nevada, in ratio of divorces to marriages. Nevada in 1951 had 55.7 divorces per 1,000 population, but, at the same time, had 289.5 marriage licenses per 1,000. Thus, while Nevada granted 5 marriage licenses for every divorce, the Virgin Islands was granting 4 divorces for every 3 marriages. Lest this year be considered unrepresentative, we may look to 1950 and 1952, during which the Islands granted 2 for 1 and 7 for 5 divorces over marriages, respectively. Only in the Virgin Islands did divorces exceed marriages during any of the years under consideration. The national average in 1940 was 2.0 divorces and 12.1 marriages per 1,000 population. Apart from some wartime fluctuations, the ratios have been quite stable. In 1951, the average was 2.5 divorces and 10.4 marriages. Thus, while the Virgin Islands was somewhat below the national average for marriages in 1951, it was 5 times the national average for divorce.
In 1952, the Virgin Islands hit its peak of divorces. Three hundred and forty-three were granted (14.3 per 1,000) as opposed to only 237 marriages. But the decisions in Alton v. Alton reduced the divorce figure to 236 in 1953, and only 111 divorces were granted between January and November of 1954.
legal sources [Footnote 23] and the rapid drop in divorces following the initial decision of unconstitutionality, is to provide a convenient forum for prosperous persons with substantial connections to the mainland, who desire to sever their marital ties while vacationing. The Commissioner in the case at bar did not even ask petitioner where she lived in the Virgin Islands.
a personal property or income tax on persons physically present for six weeks but with no stronger link to the Islands would no doubt be strongly challenged and of questionable validity.
In the circumstances, we cannot conclude that, if Congress had consciously been asked to give the Virgin Islands Legislative Assembly power to do what no State has ever attempted, it would have done so.
"In an action for the dissolution of the marriage contract or for a legal separation, the plaintiff therein must be an inhabitant of the district at the commencement of the action and for six weeks prior thereto, which residence shall be sufficient to give the Court jurisdiction without regard to the place where the marriage was solemnized or the cause of action arose."
Bill No. 14, 8th Legislative Assembly of the Virgin Islands of the United States, Sess., 1944.
Beginning with Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U. S. 244, 182 U. S. 287-344; see Coudert, The Evolution of the Doctrine of Territorial Incorporation, 26 Col.L.Rev. 823.
In Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U. S. 298.
Both were distinguished from States.
"A state, except as the federal Constitution otherwise requires, is supreme and independent. . . . A dependency [here, the Philippines] has no government but that of the United States, except insofar as the United States may permit. . . . [O]ver such a dependency the nation possesses the sovereign powers of the general government plus the powers of a local or a state government in all cases where legislation is possible."
Cincinnati Soap Co. v. United States, 301 U. S. 308, 301 U. S. 317.
E.g., 37 Stat. 514, 48 U.S.C. § 77 (Alaska).
39 Stat. 964, 48 U.S.C. § 821 (Puerto Rico); 68 Stat. 500, 48 U.S.C. § 1574(a) (Virgin Islands); 64 Stat. 387, 48 U.S.C. § 1423a.
". . . the granting of divorces was a rightful subject of legislation according to the prevailing judicial opinion of the country, and the understanding of the profession at the time the organic act of Oregon was passed by Congress, when either of the parties divorced was at the time a resident within the territorial jurisdiction of the legislature."
125 U.S. at 125 U. S. 209.
The local law as it had existed under Danish rule was continued in effect, 39 Stat. 1132, 48 U.S.C. § 1392, subject to change by the two Colonial Councils, the instruments of municipal government for the two districts of the Islands. Presidential approval of any change in this body of law was required. Ibid. Each Colonial Council subsequently passed a divorce law, verbally drawn from that of Alaska. Burch v. Burch, 195 F.2d 799, 805-806.
For the first time, the legislation explicitly characterized the Virgin Islands an "unincorporated territory."
"S. 3378 declares the Virgin Islands to be 'an unincorporated territory of the United States of America.' Thus, their legal status would be distinct and wholly different from that of Hawaii and Alaska, which are Incorporated Territories. . . . [S]tatehood has unvaryingly been the destiny of all Incorporated Territories. . . . On the other hand, there is no precedent . . . for statehood for a political, geographic, and economic unit such as the Virgin Islands would become under S. 3378. . . . A still higher degree of self-government and autonomy is, of course, possible within that framework -- such as an elective governor when the people are ready for it."
S.Rep.No.1271, 83d Cong., 2d Sess. 8. Congressman Powell, on the other hand, criticized " . . . the unwarranted failure of the bill to provide for any advance whatsoever toward increased self-government." 100 Cong.Rec. 8664.
". . . The inhabitants of the Virgin Islands . . . are capable of managing their local affairs. Unfortunately, the islands are not yet economically self-supporting. Hence, it has been necessary to provide for an amount of Federal control over local affairs commensurate with continuing expenditures of Federal funds to subsidize the local government. . . . Matters of purely local concern are placed within local legislative power. The levying of local taxes and the expenditure of local revenue are authorized. It has not been deemed wise to give the local government power to incur bonded indebtedness so long as local revenue is insufficient to pay the entire cost of local government. Locally enacted bills may be vetoed by the Governor."
S.Rep.No.1974, 74th Cong., 2d Sess. 2.
For the history of the Alaskan provision, see 48 Cong.Rec. 5267-5270, 5293, 5297-5298.
Of course, a suit for damages brought by a resident of the Virgin Islands for an injury occurring on the mainland, or a suit against a defendant served in the Virgin Islands arising out of a commercial transaction connecting both the Virgin Islands and the mainland, would clearly contain a relevant tie amply affording jurisdiction to the courts of the Virgin Islands.
We are dealing here with the bearing of the statute on consensual divorces. So far as these are concerned § 9(a) is an entirety, for in its application the first part of the section accomplishes precisely the same thing as the second. Under our system of law, a judge is not charged with the role of an adversary party, and, as such, called upon to assume responsibility for rebutting a statutory presumption.
". . . as to the extent to which the legislature may act on a rightful subject, when the limit is not expressly fixed, the court must ascertain the limit and determine whether the law is within it. To illustrate: . . . Divorce is also a rightful subject of legislation, but a law giving any married person who might apply to the court a right to a divorce without cause would be invalid."
Three members of the Legislative Assembly addressed themselves to the reasons for changing the result of the Court of Appeals in Burch v. Burch, see p. 349 U. S. 8, supra.
"The divorce business in the Virgin Islands is quite a thriving business. I understand that this business provides quite an income for the municipalities, since it is estimated that over $300,000 a year is spent within the Virgin Islands by persons who have been using the facilities of our divorce law to put their homes in order. Unfortunately, because of an error in the draft of original law . . . and because of the Governor's attitude . . . , it now becomes necessary for us to consider another amendment which is designed to enhance this u-coming [sic] business in the islands. . . . I am not trying to speak for or against the moral ethics of divorce because, as far as I am concerned, those issues were denied when the statute was enacted [sic] making it possible for people to come here for divorces. . . . I consider this matter as a means of enhancing the economy of our islands. . . ."
"The people of the Virgin Islands have enjoyed great financial benefits by an influx of people to these islands for the purpose of getting divorced. . . . I recommend to my colleagues this piece of legislation for their favorable consideration inasmuch as they can see the disadvantage in which the municipalities have been placed by not having the divorce court functioning at the present time."
Proceedings and Debates, 17th Legislative Assembly of the Virgin Islands of the United States, 3d Sess., 1953, pp. 46-47, 66-67.
". . . personally I do not see why this Assembly should be deliberating so extensively on this amendment. Only about 2% of the divorces heard and the decisions rendered in the District Courts affect the residents of the Virgin Islands. I should conclude that this law was enacted not to facilitate the bona fide residents of the Virgin Islands, but in order to provide as it were source of economic asset to the islands by which people are brought to our shores and contribute to the general economic welfare of the islands. . . . I feel proud to see that only a possible of 2 or three residents of the Virgin Islands are involved in divorce cases a year."
Proceedings and Debates, 17th Legislative Assembly of the Virgin Islands of the United States, 2d Sess., 1953, p. 10.
"This bill No. 54 before us today appears to be in my opinion, a devise [sic] aimed primarily at transients in the islands. . . . I am very well aware of the volume of divorce business being carried on in these islands. . . . I have heard that there is anticipated a half a million dollars-business in this current year which will be distributed among lawyers, hotel bills, taxi cabs and other business ventures in the Community."
The statistics which follow are derived from these sources: United States Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1954, pp. 9, 63, 85, 940, 942; United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Summary of Marriage and Divorce Statistics, United States, 1952, pp. 45, 52-53; United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Monthly Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 3, No. 12, Feb. 15, 1955, p. 7; Brief for Petitioner, p. 53.
See Virgin Islands Report, Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 83d Cong., 2d Sess. 125-127; VIII Virgin Islands Magazine (Special Edition 1954) 7 et seq.; Murray, The Complete Handbook of the Virgin Islands 1951, 12-100.
". . . the present court is not unsympathetic to the fact that the failure to grant these divorces has affected the economic status of both lawyers and guest house keepers. . . ."
Virgin Islands Report, Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 83d Cong., 2d Sess. 4, 54.
"(b) For the purpose of this law, 'residents of the Virgin Islands' shall be persons who have maintained legal residence in the Virgin Islands for a period of one year next preceding the date of the election, and in the district in which they desire to vote for a period of sixty days next preceding the election. In all cases of doubt as to legal residence, the Board shall request the registrant to submit substantial and satisfactory proof that the said registrant has fulfilled the legal residence requirement. The domicile, which is the registrant's legal residence, shall be determined in accordance with the following rules:"
"1) Every person has a domicile."
"2) There can be but one domicile."
"3) Legal residence or domicile is the place where a person habitually resides when not called elsewhere to work or for some other temporary purpose and to which such person returns in season for rest."
"4) Legal domicile or residence may be changed by joinder of act and intent."
"5) A domicile cannot be lost until a new one has been acquired."
"This subsection shall be strictly enforced by the Board."
Bill No. 86, 18th Legislative Assembly of the Virgin Islands of the United States, 2d Sess., 1954, c. II, § 1.
A "fundamental tenet of judicial review" the late Mr. Justice Jackson said, is that "not the wisdom or policy of legislation, but only the power of the legislature, is a fit subject for consideration by the courts." Jackson, The Struggle for Judicial Supremacy (1941), p. 81. Some 10 years later, in Harisiades v. Shaughnessy, 342 U. S. 580, 342 U. S. 590, he added that "judicially we must tolerate what personally we may regard as a legislative mistake."
application," [Footnote 2/1] it was "designed for export." In so doing, the Court does violence to the command of the Congress; it overrides a long line of its own decisions, as well as the unanimous opinion in this case of the seven judges of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, each of whom has had long experience with territorial acts; and, finally, it confounds the fundamental law governing our territories which heretofore has gone unquestioned.
The legislative history of the "subjects of local application" provision, on which the Court grounds its action, shows beyond a doubt that today's construction was never dreamed of by the Congress.
"the Constitution, and all laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said Territory of New Mexico as elsewhere within the United States."
(Emphasis supplied.) 9 Stat. 452. The Act also declared that the legislative power of the Territory covered "all rightful subjects of legislation, consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act." 9 Stat. 449.
of a legislative character not locally inapplicable . . . ," [Footnote 2/2] 31 Stat. 83, instead of "rightful subjects of legislation." After the Foraker Act, the words evolved but little, until now, with the dropping of the double negative, the phrase has become "subjects of local application."
has specifically provided that it may annul any local law. 48 U.S.C. § 1574c. However, the Islands' divorce law has been neither vetoed nor annulled.
"legislative assembly . . . shall have complete power, subject to the veto of the governor and the supervision of Congress, to legislate upon all rightful subjects of legislation."
(Emphasis supplied.) S.Rep. No. 249, 56th Cong., 1st Sess. 3.
"With the exceptions noted in this section [such as 'no law shall be passed interfering with the primary disposition of the soil'], the power of the territorial legislature was apparently as plenary as that of the legislature of a state. [Footnote 2/4]"
"Congress, having supreme legislative power over the Territories and not being expressly restricted by the Constitution, can delegate power to local tribunals for self-government, corresponding with the powers of the States of the Union as to legislation. . . . Congress has chosen to leave Puerto Rico [and Hawaii] under the control of their local laws."
local application" might be interpreted as a specific limitation.
The government of our Caribbean possessions has been modified by Congress on various occasions, always definitely in the direction of more self-government. See H.R.Rep.No.461, 63d Cong., 2d Sess., 53 Cong.Rec. 7469. As is common in such enactments, a compromise is reached between those who want still greater independence and those who feel that the present degree of restriction is warranted. Yet, after exhaustive research, we have found nowhere in the debates or hearings, or in the arguments of those supporting complete self-government for the Islands, even a hint that the phrase "of local application" represents any type of a restriction upon the local government, above and beyond our usual concepts of legislative jurisdiction.
see Miller Bros. Co. v. Maryland, 347 U. S. 340, it strikes me as completely unreasonable to assume that "of local application," without the faintest indication of such in the legislative history, was meant to delegate to the Court a novel standard, equally indefinite, which it might apply on an ad hoc basis.
The slenderness of the reed on which the majority depends is further emphasized by the fact that, in the 55 years that the "of local application" provision has been used in describing the power of territorial legislatures, it has not, so far as I can find, ever been contended in any court, in any judicial opinion, or in any law review or treatise that the phrase represented any such limitation as the majority has placed upon it.
What Law Would Be "Of Local Application"?
"[W]hile it is the duty of the courts to put a construction upon statutes, which shall, so far as possible, be consonant with good morals, we know of no legal principle which would authorize us to pronounce a statute of this kind, which is plain and unambiguous upon its face, void, by reason of its failure to conform to our own standard of social and moral obligations. Legislatures are as competent as courts to deal with these subjects, and, in fixing a standard of their own, are beyond our control."
"That no provision similar to the one here under discussion is contained in the organic act of Hawaii, passed at the same session [of the Congress] is wholly without significance when due regard is given to the actual conditions of Congressional draftsmanship. The two acts issued from two different committees, and were actually drawn by different sets of legislators. Instances, such as this case discloses, of the lack of uniformity in similar enactments and general want of scientific draftsmanship are bound to present themselves. . . ."
While the Court's opinion makes no reference to any constitutional doubts, these may have motivated it in striking down the Islands' law on the statutory ground. In my opinion, this may be an explanation, but it is not an excuse. There are limits to which the Court should not run to escape a constitutional adjudication. Admittedly, the doubt that domicile is not a constitutional requirement is not free from doubters. Even though judge-made, it does involve a peculiarly sensitive area of American life. Nevertheless, the Virgin Islands are entitled to a forthright adjudication on their statute -- not one by a phantom escape clause.
interest does not come within the protection of the Due Process Clause. Likewise, full faith and credit is not applicable. Mrs. Granville-Smith is not asking that this Court make her divorce, if granted, valid in the States. That issue is not here, and may never be. All she asks is that the Islands be permitted to proceed under their own law. In this connection, I find no words in the Constitution which require a Territory to give full faith and credit to the laws of a State.
Nor have the Islands invaded the sphere of activities reserved to the States, contrary to the Tenth Amendment. The "Tenth Amendment does not operate as a limitation upon the powers, express or implied, delegated to the national government.'" Case v. Bowles, 327 U. S. 92, 327 U. S. 102. The Congress has the power to deal with the Islands, granting or withholding from them the powers of a State as it sees fit.
minds to it?" [Footnote 2/9] Child Labor Tax Case, 259 U. S. 20, 259 U. S. 37. Still the Court strikes down the Islands' law which avoids this judicial fraud.
Divorce is an intensely practical matter, and, if a husband and wife domiciled in any State want a divorce enough, we all know that they can secure it in several of our States. This being true, I see no sense in striking down the Islands' law. There is no virtue in a state of the law the only practical effect of which would be to make New Yorkers fly 2,400 miles over land to Reno instead of 1,450 miles over water to the Virgin Islands.
The only vice of the Virgin Islands' statute, in an uncontested case like this, is that it makes unnecessary a choice between bigamy and perjury. I think the Court should not discourage this, and I would reverse.
The words of the Organic Act, however, appear to require that local laws merely be on "subjects of local application." Divorce, it seems to me, is such a subject.
"The broad grant to a territorial legislature of 'all local legislative power' in the Territory, to 'extend to all matters of a legislative character not locally inapplicable,' in language such as, or similar to, that used in the Organic Act for Puerto Rico, taken in connection with the other provisions of an organic act establishing, as in Puerto Rico, an organized territorial government in accordance with the American system, with legislative, executive, and judicial powers, confers (with the exceptions specifically stated in the Organic Act) as plenary local legislative power upon the territorial legislature as that habitually exercised by the legislature of a State."
(Emphasis supplied.) Government brief, p. 31.
These include the substance of the Bill of Rights, 48 U.S.C. § 1561, and provisions covering the pay of legislators, 48 U.S.C. § 1572, the extent of the franchise, 48 U.S.C. § 1542, and various aspects of legislative procedure, 48 U.S.C. § 1575.
See also Walker v. New Mexico & Southern Pacific R. Co., 165 U. S. 593, 165 U. S. 604 (1897) (New Mexico); Clinton v. Englebrecht, 13 Wall. 434, 80 U. S. 441 (1872) (Utah); Hornbuckle v. Tombs, 18 Wall. 648, 85 U. S. 655 (1874) (Montana); Gromer v. Standard Dredging Co., 224 U. S. 362, 224 U. S. 370 (1912) (Puerto Rico); Christianson v. King County, 239 U. S. 356, 239 U. S. 365 (1915) (Washington); Maynard v. Hill, 125 U. S. 190, 125 U. S. 204 (1888) (Oregon); Tiaco v. Forbes, 228 U. S. 549 (Philippine Islands); In re Murphy, 5 Wyo. 297, 310, 40 P. 398, 402 (1895) (Wyoming); Territory v. Long Bell Lumber Co., 22 Okl. 890, 898, 99 P. 911, 914-915 (1908) (Oklahoma); 19 Op.Atty.Gen. 335, 338 (Arizona).
"In any case, it is not lightly to be implied that Congress . . . has delegated to this Court the responsibility of giving new content to language deliberately readopted."
Even this is being fast undone, and "English courts may now grant divorces in many cases where the parties are not domiciled in England." See 65 Harv.L.Rev. 193, 200. See also Crownover v. Crownover, 58 N.M. 597, 274 P.2d 127 (1954).
An article on the Nevada divorce in a popular magazine shows that the people have not closed their minds, even if this Court has.
"Nevada's first requirement for a divorce is what lawyers smugly refer to as a 'legal fiction': six weeks' steady residence in Nevada. . . . After this, a mild sort of perjury is committed when the applicant mumbles in reply to the judge's mumble, that she does intend to continue residence in Nevada."
Holiday, February, 1949, p. 98.

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