Guam has a law that says Guam residents who became citizens by a particular act of Congress in 1950, and their descendants, are entitled to register to vote in any future plebiscite on the future political status of Guam. This special list of registered voters is separate from the general list. The law also says no such plebiscite will be held until a large percentage of eligible residents actually register for this election.
A resident of Guam who doesn’t meet the qualifications for the special list sued in U.S. District Court in 2011, seeking to invalidate the special registration list. Guam tried to defend the law by saying the lawsuit isn’t ripe, because the proportion of eligible people who have actually signed up for the special list is far too low, and therefore any such future election, and future use of the special registration list, is in the far future.
The U.S. District Court initially agreed with the Guam government, but then the Ninth Circuit ruled the case is ripe, and sent it back. On March 8, the U.S. District Court struck down the law setting up the special registration list. The case is Davis v Guam Election Commission, 1:11cv-35. The basis for the decision is the Fifteenth Amendment, which does not permit any voting restriction based on race. Approximately 99% of the Guam residents who gained citizenship by a special act of Congress in 1950 were native Chamorros, and the law, by limiting the special registration list to those individuals and their descendants, was found by the court to be a racial test.
Odds for statehood are now even higher, since the separatists are almost entirely chamorros where as statehood appears to have broad support across all segments of the population
One is reminded of how the term “grandfathering” originated.
Frankly, I think that the Chamorros on Guam would have more luck if they petitioned the US government to be recognized as a tribe.
@ will fenwick: It seems to me that Guam is rather small to become a state on its own. Maybe if they petitioned to be incorporated into Hawaii, or if they petitioned with the Northern Marianas and Micronesia to form a new state, they might be taken more seriously.
Thanks for your post!
Guam plus American Samoa plus the Northern Marianas Islands would be a population of about 291,000. That’s still only about of the current smallest state (WY, 584,153)… though really, I think it’s close enough in the context of statehood that we shouldn’t be that worried about them being slightly-over-represented with their 1 Representative. Alternately we could increase the size of the House which is something we should do anyway.
*still only about half of WY’s population, rather.
Well, if the protectorates of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau decided to become territories again then they could contribute 53,300 , 106,100 , and about 18,000 people to this hypothetical state for a total population of about 468,400 people.
I had that same thought and was just doing that math. It’s really not a bad idea, they’d probably be better off today if they’d done that. But they had a six-option referendum back in the 1970s when the US was trying to get out of the “Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.” They then variously voted on whether or not to affiliate with each other, forming what are now the three CFA nations. Statehood only had very marginal support at the time, less than 10% across the board.
Honestly though, CFA status is *so close* to being American territory, it might not be that implausible of a sell. It becomes even more plausible if you include some other independent states or New Zealand and/or French territories.
Of course if the local political will isn’t there, it isn’t there. But it would make sense to me, that or the original idea of expanding Hawaii to include the other Pacific territories.
Worth noting, that would still paper over a lot of geography and cultural differences between Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Which may be why it’s never caught on locally as much as it has with outsiders looking at the big patch on the map it would create.