Commonwealth Of Puerto Rico v. Valle

136 S.Ct. 1863 (2016)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Puerto Rico became a territory in 1898, as a result of the Spanish-American War. Congress was tasked with determining “t]he civil rights and political status” of its inhabitants. Acting pursuant to the U. S. Constitution’s Territory Clause, Congress initially established a “civil government” for Puerto Rico possessing significant authority over internal affairs. The U. S. President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, appointed the governor, supreme court, and upper house of the legislature; the Puerto Rican people elected the lower house themselves. Congress granted Puerto Rico additional autonomy. A federal statute passed in 1917 replaced the upper house of the legislature with a popularly elected senate. In 1947, an amendment to that law empowered the Puerto Rican people to elect their own governor, a right never before accorded in a U. S. territory. Congress enabled Puerto Rico to embark on the project of constitutional self-governance. The eventual constitution had to “provide a republican form of government” and “include a bill of rights”; all else would be hashed out in a constitutional convention. he constitution would become effective only “upon approval by the Congress.” The Puerto Rico Constitution created a new political entity, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rico Constitution describes that tripartite government as “republican in form” and “subordinate to the sovereignty of the people of Puerto Rico.” The Commonwealth’s power, the Constitution proclaims, “emanates from the people and shall be exercised in accordance with their will, within the terms of the compact agreed upon between the people of Puerto Rico and the United States.” Art. I, §1. Ds each sold a gun to an undercover police officer. Commonwealth prosecutors indicted them for selling a firearm without a permit in violation of the Puerto Rico Arms Act of 2000. Federal grand juries indicted Ds, based on the same transactions, for violations of analogous U. S. gun trafficking statutes. Ds moved to dismiss the pending Commonwealth charges on double jeopardy grounds. The prosecutors in both cases opposed those motions, arguing that Puerto Rico and the United States are different sovereigns for double jeopardy purposes, and so could bring successive prosecutions against each of the two Ds. The trial courts rejected that view and dismissed the charges. The Puerto Rico Court of Appeals reversed those decisions. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico granted review and held that Puerto Rico’s gun sale prosecutions violated the Double Jeopardy Clause. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.