Meaning of "Sovereignty in Association With The United States"
The first and third status options in the second plebiscite – independence and statehood, respectively – are straightforward. The second option, however, uses terminology that is not widely recognized in discussions of political status. It proposes: "Sovereignty in Association with the United States: Puerto Rico and the United States should form a political association between sovereign nations that will not be subject to the Territorial Clause of the United States Constitution."
“Sovereignty in association with the United States” is not a term of art typically used in status discussions. The proposed ballot language suggests that Puerto Rico would become an independent nation but maintain a close relationship with the U.S., perhaps akin to a concept known as “free association.” Free association generally implies negotiated legal, economic, or defense ties between two independent nations. Three former territories – the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau – are currently engaged in free association with the United States. (Following World War II, the U.S. administered all three of those territories on behalf of the United Nations, although they were never U.S. territories per se but United Nations Trust Territories.) Based on current compact agreements with the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau, the U.S. provides those countries with defense protection and various forms of economic aid. If the “sovereign association” language proposed in H.R. 2499 is viewed as something akin to free association, the future relationship between the U.S. and an independent Puerto Rico could resemble the current relationships between the United States and the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau.
“Sovereignty in association with the United States” might also be interpreted to mean so-called “enhanced commonwealth,” an option that is not a particular territorial status or official term, but which has been a component of previous popular status debates. Generally, “enhanced commonwealth” suggests a relationship that is, essentially, something between territorial status and statehood. Recent presidential task force reports have concluded that such an option would be unconstitutional because land under United States sovereignty must either be a State or a territory, but some in Puerto Rico maintain that such a political status could be negotiated between Puerto Rico and the U.S. These are two possible interpretations of option No. 2 in the second plebiscite and, in the absence of additional information, the precise meaning of the option is unclear.
Read more about this topic: Puerto Rico Democracy Act, Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2010, Key Issues Before Congress
Famous quotes containing the words united states, meaning of, meaning, sovereignty, association, united and/or states:
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“It’s given new meaning to me of the scientific term black hole.”
—Don Logan, U.S. businessman, president and chief executive of Time Inc. His response when asked how much his company had spent in the last year to develop Pathfinder, Time Inc.’S site on the World Wide Web. Quoted in New York Times, p. D7 (November 13, 1995)
“If Thou be more than hate or atmosphere
Step forth in splendor, mortify our wolves.
Or we assume a sovereignty ourselves.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“... a Christian has neither more nor less rights in our association than an atheist. When our platform becomes too narrow for people of all creeds and of no creeds, I myself cannot stand upon it.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“It is a united will, not mere walls, which makes a fort.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The admission of the States of Wyoming and Idaho to the Union are events full of interest and congratulation, not only to the people of those States now happily endowed with a full participation in our privileges and responsibilities, but to all our people. Another belt of States stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)