A group of 13 civil rights organizations sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland last week, calling on the Department of Justice to stop using a series of racist, century-old Supreme Court precedents in its court arguments.
The letter ― signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Hispanic Federation, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, among other groups ― targets a series of Supreme Court rulings from the early 20th century, known as the Insular Cases. These rulings denied the full benefits of citizenship to residents of America’s colonial territorial possessions, on the grounds that they were supposedly populated by “savage tribes” and “alien” and “uncivilized race[s]” who were “absolutely unfit to receive” them.
“We call on the Justice Department to help dismantle this egregious example of systemic racism by publicly condemning the Insular Cases and bringing an end to any reliance on them in future court filings,” the letter states.
The Huff Post reports, “Today, the Insular Cases still deprive the more than 3.5 million Americans living in America’s colonial territories of the right to vote in federal elections, equal application of the law and equal access to federal benefits and rights, despite those people’s claim to birthright citizenship as provided for in the 14th Amendment.
The civil rights groups want Garland and Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar to make it the government’s position that the courts should overturn the Insular Cases, much as the Department of Justice did in 2011 with regard to the Korematsu v. United States case that upheld the incarceration and removal of Japanese Americans during World War II. The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
The civil rights groups want the Biden administration’s DOJ to announce that it is now the government’s position that the precedents set in the Insular Cases should be overturned. This would match President Joe Biden’s pledge to eliminate systemic racism from governmental institutions and the law.
The letter from the civil rights groups states: “DOJ’s continued embrace of the Insular Cases cannot be reconciled with this administration’s pledge to affirmatively advance equity and racial justice.”
