At first, Puerto Rican political leaders coalesced around the goal of statehood, with the two major political parties on the island adopting pro-statehood platforms. They knew that ever since the days of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which had promised statehood to the territories that became Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota, every territory annexed by the U.S. had been on the path to statehood. And they saw in statehood a version of the autonomy they had sought from Spain. As one of the leading politicians on the island, Luis Muñoz Rivera, stated in a public hearing held in late 1898, Puerto Ricans “aspire[d] to maintain the individuality of the country within the Union of states.”
But the United States quickly betrayed their expectations, refusing even to grant them U.S. citizenship and denying them certain constitutional rights.
When the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in, it compounded the betrayal. Beginning in 1901, in a series of decisions known as the Insular Cases, the court confirmed that Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam were different from other U.S. territories—and lesser. Unlike prior territories, they “belong[ed] to,” but were not “a part of,” the United States. They were, instead, “foreign to the United States in a domestic sense.” As a result, they lacked the implicit promise of statehood that other territories had enjoyed. They might be admitted as states. Or they might become independent, as the Philippines did in 1946. Or they might just remain territories indefinitely. It was up to Congress, and Congress alone, to decide.
Thrust yet again into a wrenching debate about their future, Puerto Ricans split into factions that mirrored their factions under Spain. Some favored statehood and others autonomy, while a small minority called for independence. Meanwhile, Congress stonewalled, gradually increasing the island’s self-government but withholding a permanent, non-colonial status.
In 1917, Congress granted U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans. In 1950-52, Congress authorized Puerto Rico to adopt its own constitution and gave it the official title “Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.” But even in the wake of these momentous developments, Puerto Rico’s constitutional relationship to the United States remained unchanged. It remained a U.S. territory, still deprived of federal representation, and still subject to Congress’s power to govern it under the Territory Clause of the Constitution. Known as “plenary power,” it includes the power to modify or withdraw Puerto Rico’s self-government. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was still a colony, albeit one with a fancy name.