The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Puerto Rico enjoys most types of sovereignty, though not a type relevant to the criminal case at hand.
The Court ruling on Commonwealth of Puerto Rico versus Luis M. Sanchez Valle held that Puerto Rico lacked the sovereignty to pursue a criminal case against two defendants accused of illegally selling guns who had already been found guilty in a U.S. court and served terms for the crime.
The double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights bars more than one prosecution for the same crime. However, in the United States a state or an Indian tribe can charge someone with a crime even after federal prosecutors have already tried the person for the same offense. The legal basis of the states' and tribes' ability to do this has been their sovereignty from the United States government. The commonwealth argued that it also had this sovereignty.
Underlying the case were important issues concerning the relationship between the federal government and Puerto Rico. The ruling, however, focused on the double jeopardy issue and didn't apply to broader questions of sovereignty.
"The inquiry does not turn, as the term 'sovereignty' sometimes suggests, on the degree to which the second entity is autonomous from the first or sets its own political course," Justice Elena Kagan said, writing the six justice majority opinion. "Rather, the issue is only whether the prosecutorial powers of the two jurisdictions have independent origins."
Puerto Rico Sen. José Nadal Power had said in January that if the position that Puerto Rico did not have sovereignty to pursue the criminal case "prevails and therefore Puerto Rico has no internal sovereignty, the commonwealth might be as a result impaired to provide sovereign guarantee to its general obligations, making the federal government a default co-guarantor since the only remaining sovereignty on the island would be the federal sovereignty," a Nadal Power spokeswoman had written in an email.
Kagan emphasized that the historic origins of prosecutorial power in states and Indian tribes were in those states' and tribal governments, rather than with the United States Congress. However, Puerto Rico's right to prosecute originally started with the U.S. Congress. Kagan noted the history of Congressional control over Puerto Rico from the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898 to Congress' modification and approval of Puerto Rico's proposed self-governing constitution in 1952.
Because Puerto Rico's right to prosecute had its origins in the U.S. Congress, Kagan said that the double jeopardy clause does apply in the case and that Puerto Rico did not have the right to prosecute the two defendants.
Kagan acknowledged that "constitutional developments [in the mid-20th century] were of great significance – and, indeed, made Puerto Rico 'sovereign' in one commonly understood sense of that term."
Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomeyer dissented in the case.
In response to the Supreme Court decision, the sole member of Puerto Rico's Independence Party in the Puerto Rico Senate, Maria de Lourdes Santiago Negr-, said, "The Supreme Court of the United States, with the decision issued today in the case of Sanchez Valle, has certified what the independence movement has denounced for decades: the Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico [also known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico] is a colonial system, a political inferiority.
"It is no coincidence that the determination of the Supreme Court was issued just today, the day the U.S. House of Representatives will act on the draft fiscal control board, which is naked colonialism, the imposition of dictatorship, the disregard of the prerogatives of Puerto Rican citizens," she continued. "The only dignified and morally and materially viable solution is the independence of Puerto Rico."
In response to the ruling, Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla said that the court had focused on the origins of the right to propose criminal laws and generally did not challenge Puerto Rico's autonomy. However, the governor said he was concerned that it tied Puerto Rico's government sovereignty to the United States Congress.
García Padilla said he would go to the United Nations' Special Committee on Decolonization on June 20 to defend Puerto Rico's right to self-government.
Puerto Rico has a separate case pending at the Supreme Court concerning its Public Corporations Debt Enforcement and Recovery Act. Lower courts have ruled against Puerto Rico's bankruptcy measure for its authorities and municipalities. The court is expected to rule on the case by the end of June.
