Court Opinion

ID: 9426789
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:18:56.942087+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:03.167463
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Marshall,
with whom Mr. Justice Stewart, Mr. Justice Rehnquist, and Mr. Justice Stevens join, dissenting.
Although this case may at first glance seem unimportant to anyone but the residents of Guam, the result of the Court's *205decision is perhaps unprecedented in our history. The Court today abolishes the Supreme Court of Guam, a significant part of the system of self-government established by some 85,000 American citizens through their freely elected legislature.1
The Court’s error, in my view, lies in its misinterpretation of the Organic Act of Guam. I do not doubt that Congress has the authority in the exercise of its plenary power over Territories of the United States, Art. IV, § 3, to reverse Guam’s decision to reorganize its local court system. In this case, however, Congress has plainly authorized enactment of the challenged legislation, while there has been no corresponding delegation to this Court of the congressional power to veto such laws. Because “our judicial function” is limited “to apply [ing] statutes on the basis of what Congress has written, not what Congress might have written,” United States v. Great Northern R. Co., 343 U. S. 562, 575 (1952), I must respectfully dissent.
In reaching its decision, the Court focuses exclusively on the meaning of the second half of the second sentence of § 22 (a) of the Organic Act of Guam, 64 Stat. 389.2 With all respect, this approach ignores the horse while concentrating on minute details of the cart’s design. If the sentences of § 22 *206(a) are simply read in the order in which they are written, their meaning is plain without resort to complex exegesis.
The first sentence creates the federal “District Court of Guam.” It goes on to provide that “the judicial authority of Guam shall be vested in the District Court of Guam and in such court or courts as may have been or may hereafter be established by the laws of Guam.” This language is strikingly similar to the familiar words of Art. Ill, § 1: “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” Both provisions describe the bodies that will exercise the judicial power. They name one court and mandate its establishment. They leave the creation of the remainder of the court system to the legislature. But there is one key distinction: Where Art. Ill expressly describes the relationship among the courts, making one “supreme” and the others “inferior,” § 22 (a) is silent.
The only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn from this distinction is that the Organic Act, unlike our Constitution, was intended to allow the elected representatives of the people governed by the courts to control the relationship among the courts. The absence of any indication of a superior-inferior structure in § 22 (a) also indicates that there is no reason to consider the federal and local courts other than coequal in matters as to which they share jurisdiction, i. e., cases that might be appealed. Rather, the conspicuously incomplete emulation of the well-known Art. Ill model suggests that the people of Guam may terminate the District Court’s appellate jurisdiction.
The Court ascribes great significance to the different language used to describe the legislature’s power to “transfer” trial jurisdiction to the local courts, as contrasted with the power to “determine” appellate jurisdiction. The words, read in context, seem to me to be no more than alternative expressions for the same concept, used in the interest of avoiding *207repetition. Thus, the first sentence of § 22 (a) gives Guam the authority to establish any courts it deems necessary. The last sentence of the section, also ignored in the Court’s analysis, gives Guam the power to prescribe the “jurisdiction of and procedure in” such local courts. “Determine” as used in the context of the second sentence of § 22 (a) is an obvious synonym for “grant.” If the Guam Legislature may grant the District Court appellate jurisdiction in the first instance, it has the converse power to withdraw it. Read as a whole, § 22 (a) plainly encompasses the power to give all appellate jurisdiction to a local court.
The Court relies on the fact that this interpretation of the Organic Act might insulate decisions of the local courts that involve questions of federal constitutional or statutory law from review in Art. Ill’ courts, something which other territorial charters have apparently not granted. With respect to the latter point, it is worth noting that Guam is a small and isolated possession that Congress might well have wished to give unusual autonomy in local affairs. No doubt, too, Congress’ sense of the proper way to govern far-distant citizens has changed considerably in recent decades from the expansionist ethic which prevailed when Hawaii was annexed, the Spanish possessions (including Guam) ceded, and the Virgin Islands purchased. It is thus not surprising to find a broad authorization for self-government granted by the Organic Act passed in 1950. And it speaks well for the good sense of the people of Guam that they observed the functioning of the judicial system on their island for 23 years before deciding that a local appellate court would best serve their needs. This hiatus, therefore, does not indicate that Guam lacked the power to act, as the Court assumes, ante, at 201, but rather that the people deemed it unwise at that stage in their development to do so. Moreover, as careful analysis of the relevant sections of other territorial charters demonstrates, see Agana Bay Dev. Co., Ltd. v. Supreme Court of Guam, 529 *208F. 2d 952, 957-958 (CA9 1976), “the Guam Organic Act is unique and it delegates the widest powers of any of the territories to the legislature for the creation of appellate courts.” Id., at 957.
If there are constitutional problems with this interpretation of the Organic Act, see ante, at 201-202, 204, they do not arise from the action of the Guam Legislature in creating a local appellate court. Rather, they stem from the absence of a statute expressly providing for appeals from the Guam courts to an Art. Ill tribunal. As petitioner notes, Brief for Petitioner 15-19, Congress has in its dealings with Guam historically reacted to the developing legal needs of the island rather than anticipating them. See, e. g., Corn v. Cuam Coral Co., 318 F. 2d 622, 624-627 (CA9 1963). This is not surprising; since the Organic Act did not set up a local court structure, it was impossible for Congress to foresee the manner in which the system as actually established would mesh with the Art. Ill courts. Most recently, Congress authorized Guam to design a local court system as part of the drafting of a new constitution, recognizing that it would thereafter be necessary to enact legislation “regulating the relationship between the local courts of Guam and the Federal judicial system.” Pub. L. No. 94-584, 90 Stat. 2899, § 2 (b) (7).
In view of the willingness of Congress to accommodate both the aspirations of the people of Guam and the requirements of federal jurisdiction, I think there is no need to search for constitutional questions where none yet exist.3 In the meantime, we should not eviscerate the court system carefully devised by the people of Guam in the exercise of their right of self-government.
I respectfully dissent.

 See U. S. Dept, of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States 855, 856 (1976); 8 U. S. C. § 1407; Guam Govt. Code § 2056 (1970).

 This statute, prior to a 1958.amendment, provided in pertinent part:
“There is hereby created a court of record to be designated the 'District Court of Guam’, and the judicial authority of Guam shall be vested in the District Court of Guam and in such court or courts as may have been or may hereafter be established by the laws of Guam. The District Court of Guam shall have, in all causes arising under the laws of the United States, the jurisdiction of a district court of the United States as such court is defined in section 451 of title 28, United States Code, and shall have original jurisdiction in all other causes in Guam, jurisdiction over which has not been transferred by the legislature to other court or courts established by it, and shall have such appellate jurisdiction as the legislature may determine. The jurisdiction of and the procedure in the courts of Guam other than the District Court of Guam shall be prescribed by the laws of Guam.”

 Nowhere in respondent’s presentation to this Court is there any claim of federal constitutional or statutory infirmities in his conviction for violation of the laws of Guam.