[90197] in Cypherpunks
Citizenship, soverignty and insular areas
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steve Schear)
Sun Nov 16 19:55:07 1997
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 15:17:46 -0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Steve Schear <schear@lvdi.net>
Reply-To: Steve Schear <schear@lvdi.net>
A very interesting report just published which, while explaining to a
Congressional Committee about the legal status of certain small U.S.
possessions and territories, touches on differences in the application
of U.S. law and citizenship in these areas. Interestingly,
<fontfamily><param>Helvetica</param><smaller>"The Constitution does not
apply in its entirety to territories solely by
virtue of the fact that those territories have come under the
possession
and control of the United States. Whether rights under the
Constitution
apply to a territory and, if so, to what extent depends essentially on
either
of two factors, according to a series of Supreme Court decisions called
the
Insular Cases.<smaller><smaller>15 </smaller></smaller>The first is
whether the right in question is considered to
be "fundamental" or not; the second is whether the Congress has taken
legislative action to extend the Constitution to the
territory.</smaller></fontfamily>"
In particular, federal income tax does not apply to many of these
possessions (e.g., Saipan) and have become tax havens for some U.S.
citizens.
- U.S. Insular Areas: Application of the U.S. Constitution.
OGC-98-5. 13 pp. plus 7 appendices (58 pp.) November 7, 1997.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/og98005.pdf
