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In Citizenship We Trust? The Citizenship Question Need Not Impede Puerto Rican Decolonization, Jimmy Mcdonough

Michigan Law Review

Puerto Rico is an uncomfortable reminder of the democratic deficits within the world’s oldest constitutional democracy. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens who live in a U.S. territory that is subject to the plenary authority of Congress, to which they cannot elect voting members. In 2022, under unified Democratic control for the first time in a decade, Congress considered the Puerto Rico Status Act, legislation that would finally decolonize Puerto Rico. The Status Act offered Puerto Rican voters three alternatives to the colonial status quo—statehood, independence, or sovereignty in free association—and committed Congress to implementing whichever alternative won majority support from …