Folks, earlier this month, I was proud to lead my colleagues in sending a letter to President Biden urging full condemnation of the Insular Cases, a century old Supreme Court decision that established a racist and colonial legal framework that’s denied 3.6 million U.S. territory residents equal constitutional rights.

Last year, in speaking out against the denial of federal benefits in U.S. territories, President Biden declared, ‘there can be no second-class citizens in the United States of America.’

Yet the Biden-Harris Justice Department expressly relied on the Insular Cases last fall to argue that people born in U.S. territories have no right to U.S. citizenship and that it is a mere privilege for Congress to extend or retract at whim.

The Biden-Harris Justice Department will soon have a chance to correct this error when it files its response in Fitisemanu v. United States, a case which asks the Supreme Court to answer, ‘whether the Insular Cases should be overruled.’

Team, if the Supreme Court fails to act, it is up to Congress to take the lead and end this practice rooted in colonialism. But for our country to finally move forward, we need Democrats in charge come January 2023, not far-right Republicans. Will you contribute today and defend the majority so we can finally end this exclusionary, discriminatory practice?

Since being elected to represent the Virgin Islands, my team and I have worked with a politically and ideologically diverse group of people in calling on the Supreme Court to overrule the Insular Cases.

Earlier this year, with 8 amicus briefs calling on the Supreme Court to take up a case that could potentially overrule the Insular Cases, I led the brief filed by former and present elected officials.

In 2022, no one should use the racist language from the Insular Cases to deny citizenship rights to people born in U.S. territories. Not federal judges. And certainly not the Biden-Harris Justice Department. But if the Supreme Court does not act, then Congress needs to step up. If you are able to, please join me in defending the majority and contribute toward ending second-class status of Virgin Islanders.

Rep. Stacey Plaskett