Stacey Plaskett

More than 3.5 million United States citizens are denied constitutional rights because they reside in one of the five U.S. territories.

At the core of the disenfranchisement of territorial residents are the racially charged series of Supreme Court decisions in the early 1900s, the Insular Cases.

It is the central principle of our American democracy that Americans through their votes can have a say in their government.

There is material doubt about how the courts will play the role of judicial review assigned by the Constitution.

What we are doing is to urge protection first and foremost for the self-determination and rights of sovereign-owned peoples.

The solution chosen by the voters of Puerto Rico to determine its ultimate political status is clear: they chose by clear majority the equality within the Nation that they are citizens of.

The Insular Cases have led to unequal application of U.S. constitutional principles in the U.S. territories, which has led to the denial of constitutional rights in the territories.

But Congress has authority to do that, right?

House Resolution 279 could be interpreted as an invitation for the courts to repeal the Insular Cases without giving any rights to sovereign people.

The resolution naturally, therefore, is a nullity without identifying the specific laws of each ruling that it seeks to overturn.

We believe being patriotic non-citizen U.S. nationals is not a second-class status but a unique first-class status.

What we oppose is the wholesale rejection of these cases because we believe such an action will have a lasting impact on the underlying structure of our political relationship with the U.S.

We want our political status and our rights under territorial law to be decided by our people, our elected leaders.

I co-sponsored the Resolution being discussed today because the Insular Cases doctrine denies democracy and equality and reflects abhorrent bias and have provided a justification for Congress to discriminate against American citizens…

We must ensure that the needs of the U.S. Virgin Islands are heard.

It is not the Insular Cases that deny the residents of the territories voting representation; Articles I and II of the Constitution do.

We deserve nothing less than the full rights of citizenship, with the full application of the constitutional and democratic principles of the United States.

It appears to be on the minority side right now, at least within the leadership of that party.

Are we going to hold on to our own power, whether it means stopping the very things that the founders fought so hard for?

The problem that is happening within the Republican Party is that divisiveness is what is over democracy itself, over what makes us America.

They have just become a party of obstruction of no-ism. They are not a party that wants to get to yes, that wants to support the American people. They want to support themselves and their quest for power.

I do believe that the Republican Party itself, those in elected positions are more concerned about retaining their power than speaking the truth, more concerned about being a part of the G.O.P. than they are about the direction of this…

The Republicans are following what their message is. They have decided that their message is obstructionism, is a big lie, is divisiveness, is tribalism, is in some instances dog whistling, and in some corners of the Republican conference…

You know, a neo Nazi group, a white supremacist group by any other name is still the same thing.

I think what she said was, is that what she that that the proposal that was put out by (INAUDIBLE) was something that an outside group had presented to her and that they were going through the issues.