Introduced
July 2, 2026
Ms. Plaskett (for herself and Mr. Hernández) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
RESOLUTION
Reaffirming the consent of the governed as the United States marks 250 years of independence.
- (1) supports democracy, fair treatment, and the right to self-determination for all people living in United States territories and commonwealths;
- (2) reaffirms that the Nation’s founding principles that all are “created equal” and that governments derive their just powers from “consent of the governed” apply with full and equal force to all people living in United States territories and commonwealths;
- (3) rejects the racist reasoning of the Insular Cases and their progeny as fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution and American values; and
- (4) embraces the conclusion of Justice John Marshall Harlan, the lone dissenter in Plessy v. Ferguson, who wrote in dissent to the Insular Cases that “[t]he idea that this country may acquire territories anywhere upon the Earth, by conquest or treaty, and hold them as mere colonies or provinces—the people inhabiting them to enjoy only such rights as Congress chooses to accord to them—is wholly inconsistent with the spirit and genius, as well as with the words, of the Constitution” (Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244, 380 (1901) (Harlan, J., dissenting)).