Pedro Rossello, a former Governor of Puerto Rico, has brought his own voting rights case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States. It is Rossello v United States, no. P-1105-06. Like the Igartua challenge mentioned in an earlier blog entry, the complaint charges the United States with violating the OAS Charter for depriving U.S. adult citizens living in Puerto Rico of their vote for president. Thanks to Michael Richardson for this news.
How much can really come of this? Say the OAS finds the US has violated the charter – which I give fair odds of happening. Then what? Unless there’s a constitutional ammendment allowing Puerto Rico to vote for president under its current status, then the only solution is statehood – anything else would be blatantly unconstitutional, no? And wouldn’t this have implications for the other US possessions?
The political fallout could be devastating – the US changes it’s constitution at the behest of an international organization we’re part of, or gets reprimanded one way or another by Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada. Bet Congress’ll be wishing it took the statehood question a bit more seriously then…
George Washington warned us of International entanglements & alliances for this very reason,they try to impose their will upon us.The U.S. Constitution is the Top Law of the Land,Nothing else matters
And there is always the World Court in Europe!
Dont’ forget that those born in Puerto Rico are US citizens since 1917, that the 1941 Nationality Act made their American citizenship equal to that of those born in the 50 states, and that we are subject to most federal laws, unless they expressly state that they are not applicable to Puerto Rico. While the constitution is the supreme law of the land, it was written before the US acquired its current overseas territories, and that the Supreme Court invented the concept of “unincorporated territories vs incorporated territories” (which does not appear in the Constitution) in the early 1900’s. That same Supreme Court was the same that in 1896 established “separate but equal” in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson — allowing racial segregation.
I mean I feel that letting Puerto Ricans vote will change the way the US works, but for the better. A lot of Puerto Ricans don’t care whether they get to vote in the Presidential election or not, but some of them do care. For those who don’t they win, but what about the ones that do? If we establish a law saying that US born citizens in Puerto Rico can vote for Presidents then that gives them the option, it doesn’t mean they have to, but its always nice to at least have the choice to decide who is semi-in charge of you. I feel like it is extremely important to allow Puerto Ricans to vote. I am Puerto Rican myself and i live in the USA but i am truly offended that my family in Puerto Rico can’t vote.