Foreign in a Domestic Sense

In this groundbreaking study of American imperialism, leading legal scholars address the problem of the U.S. territories.Foreign in a Domestic Sensewill redefine the boundaries of constitutional scholarship. More than four million U.S. citizens currently live in five "unincorporated" U.S. territories. The inhabitants of these vestiges of an American empire are denied full representation in Congress and cannot vote in presidential elections. Focusing on Puerto Rico, the largest and most populous of the territories,Foreign in a Domestic Sensesheds much-needed light on the United Statesrs" unfinished colonial experiment and its legacy of racially rooted imperialism, while insisting on the centrality of these "marginal" regions in any serious treatment of American constitutional history. For one hundred years, Puerto Ricans have struggled to define their place in a nation that neither wants them nor wants to let them go. They are caught in a debate too politicized to yield meaningful answers. Meanwhile, doubts concerning the constitutionality of keeping colonies have languished on the margins of mainstream scholarship, overlooked by scholars outside the island and ignored by the nation at large. This book does more than simply fill a glaring omission in the study of race, cultural identity, and the Constitution; it also makes a crucial contribution to the study of American federalism, serves as a foundation for substantive debate on Puerto Ricors"s status, and meets an urgent need for dialogue on territorial status between the mainlandd and the territories.Contributors.Joseacute; Juliaacute;n Aacute;lvarez Gonzaacute;lez, Roberto Aponte Toro, Christina Duffy Burnett, Joseacute; A. Cabranes, Sanford Levinson, Burke Marshall, Gerald L. Neuman, Angel R. Oquendo, Juan Perea, Efreacute;n Rivera Ramos, Rogers M. Smith, E. Robert Statham Jr., Brook Thomas, Richard Thornburgh, Juan R. Torruella, Joseacute; Triacute;as Monge, Mark Tushnet, Mark Weiner