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Local attorney supports H.R. 279 — disagreeing with Lt. Gov’s stand

U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.
Bill acknowledges Insular Cases rest on racial views and stereotypes
fili@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — “The Insular Cases are the problem, not the solution,” declared local attorney Leiataua Charles V. Alailima in May 26th written testimony to the US House Committee on Natural Resources, saying that he supports H.R. 279 — “Insular Cases Resolution — pertaining to “Insular Cases”.

The insular cases are a series of opinions by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1901, about the status of U.S. territories acquired in the Spanish-American War, and the periods shortly thereafter, in which the court ruled that full constitutional rights did not automatically extend to all areas under American control.

The resolution reads in part that “the United States Supreme Court’s decisions in the Insular Cases and the “territorial incorporation doctrine” are contrary to the text and history of the United States Constitution, rest on racial views and stereotypes from the era of Plessy v. Ferguson that have long been rejected, are contrary to our Nation’s most basic constitutional and democratic principles, and should be rejected as having no place in United States constitutional law.”

Leiataua went on to disagree with Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo V. Ale’s claims that H.R. 279 would “hasten the destruction of unique cultures within U.S. Territories,” nor would legislation “destroy the right of the people of American Samoa to democratic self-determination.”

“To the contrary, the Insular Cases have served to delay or deny the right of self-determination in U.S. territories by entrenching undemocratic rule over the territories. Simply put, the Insular Cases are no friend to the people of American Samoa or any U.S. territory,” Leiataua told the congressional committee.

As previously reported by Samoa News, Talauega was among the panel of witnesses who provided testimony during the US House committee virtual hearing on May 12th in Washington D.C. on H.R 279, voicing American Samoa’s “strong opposition”.

While the measure is “well-intended and perhaps, in some circumstances justified, it is a blunt instrument that will not only hasten the destruction of unique cultures within U.S. Territories and Insular Areas, it will destroy the right of the people of American Samoa to democratic self-determination,” he said in written testimony provided ahead to the committee. (See Samoa News edition May 13th for details.)

Leiataua submitted his written testimony and supporting documents addressed to the House committee chairman and ranking member “to supplement the record” regarding the hearing on the measure.

While writing to the committee in his personal capacity, Leiataua represents the plaintiffs in the citizenship case pending before the US Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals — the Fitisemanu vs. U.S case — and the previous identical case — Tuaua vs US — that was heard before the federal court in Washington D.C. a few years ago.

Plaintiffs in the Fitisemanu case successfully argued in the lower court that persons born in American Samoa are automatic US citizens. The lower court’s ruling was then appealed by the US State Department, along with American Samoa Govenrment and Congresswoman Uifa’atali Aumua Amata.

For the Tuaua case, the D.C federal court, as well as the appeal’s court sided with the US State Department and American Samoa that only Congress has the authorize to grant citizenship to outlying territories, including the unincorporated territory of American Samoa.

In his testimony letter to the House committee, Leiataua shared background information and argument on his clients’ cases, saying that the federal government’s reliance — along with local elected officials — on Insular Cases to deny citizenship to people born in American Samoa, “has had a significant impact on my clients and thousands of other American Samoans.”

He also explained in detail the issues faced by his clients because they are not US citizens. (Samoa News has covered these issues extensively in the past.)

In his testimony, Leiataua responded to several arguments made by Talauega, a former attorney general. For example, Leiataua disagrees with Talauega’s assessment that non-citizen national status is “unique first-class status.”

“It is and always has been a subordinate status imposed on — not chosen by — the American Samoan people,” he said, noting that “my clients’ case and any reconsideration of the Insular Cases will not address — much less answer — any questions about American Samoa’s self-determination or future political status.”

Leiataua contends that the question for American Samoa self-determination and political status is whether the people of American Samoa would like to be part of the United States or would like to be independent — not which individual rights secured by the U.S. Constitution apply.

He recalled Talauega’s response to a committee question on independence, which asked if any of the territories were lookomg at such an issue, with the lieutenat governor responding that “as far as I know, there’s no serious discussion of going [in] that direction. Some 121 years of being part of the American family, really instills in all of us that we are Americans and part of the American family.”

Leiataua tells the committee that so “long as American Samoa is under the U.S. flag, my clients simply demand their constitutional right to be recognized as U.S. citizens, even as they continue to support broader questions of self-determination and political status being resolved through the democratic process.

Leiataua also addressed the issue of “Fa’a Samoa” saying, it’s “ Who We Are, Not What We Are Labeled”.

He contends that Talauega and Congresswoman Uifa’atali Aumua Amata, “often create the impression that non-citizen national status was something chosen by our traditional leaders to protect our land and culture.”

“They often refer to what they want protected in pleadings and court argument by the colloquial and emotive phrase, fa’a Samoa,” he said, adding that “Insular Cases do not pose a threat to our land and culture.”

He also shared with the committee “some personal impressions on what I have noted my whole life about how Samoans approach our custom and culture.”

He explained that Fa’a Samoa translates simply as “Doing things the Samoan way.”  And that “there are no unifying set of laws defining fa’a Samoa, nor is there a single ultimate authority to determine what it is or what rules it follows,” he said. 

Following the committee hearing, Uifa’atali’s office issued a statement saying that the Congresswoman agreed and supported Talauega’s call to ensure protections of American Samoa’s culture, land and traditions. They urge that Congress must consult with American Samoa, and distant courts should not decide the status of the people.

In his testimony letter, Leiataua also provided what he described as “Historical Context Regarding Citizenship and American Samoa”. He shared documents as well as provided quotes from testimony presented by local leaders to the American Samoan Commission sent by Congress in 1930 to visit the islands supporting U.S. citizenship rather than non-citizen U.S. nationals.

While the1930 Commission unanimously recommended to Congress and the President that American Samoans be recognized as “full American citizens” and twice received the unanimous support of the U.S. Senate, the legislation failed to pass the U.S. House due to opposition from the U.S. Navy, which administered American Samoa at the time — and what was characterized as racist Congressmen who called American Samoans “poor unsophisticated people,” “absolutely unqualified to receive [citizenship],” according to Leiataua.

“Our past leaders had it right,” Leiataua said in his letter. “So long as American Samoa is a part of the United States, citizenship by birth in American Samoa is a right guaranteed by the Constitution, not a privilege left to the whims of Congress – Insular Cases or no.”

He argued that the “very purpose of the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause was to make sure that the right of citizenship by birth on American soil was not left to be decided by Congress or elected officials in any state or territory. “

According to Leiataua, the lieutenant governor and the congresswoman also suggest that non-citizen national status and the Insular Cases are necessary to protect American Samoa’s land and culture.

Talauega had testified that American Samoan laws that preserve land and culture “would automatically be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause if all the provisions of the constitution applied to American Samoa, by saying that the Insular Cases are not applicable, that the Constitution applies everywhere there is American land.”

However, Leiataua said “this view both ignores applicable case law that has already upheld these laws under traditional equal protection analysis based on reasoning that would not be affected in any way by citizenship and places a dangerous reliance on the Insular Cases that they simply cannot bear.”

He explained that federal judges sitting by designation on the American Samoa High Court have been forceful in their recognition that American Samoa’s cultural preservation laws are constitutional under a traditional equal protection analysis, even as they have openly rejected any reliance on the Insular Cases to say that certain parts of the Constitution do not apply in American Samoa unless Congress says they do.

 Leitaua recalled for the committee previous cases, dealing with such specific issues.

He also told the committee that Northern Mariana Islands Congressman Gregorio K.C. Sablan “is correct” when he said that the Insular Cases are “an anchor, not a life preserver.”

Leiataua said Talauega’s and Uifa’atali’s “attempts to rely on the Insular Cases to protect American Samoa’s land and culture are not just unnecessary, but ultimately self-defeating and dangerous to the cause of American Samoan cultural preservation and self-determination, a cause which my clients and I all strongly support.”

Leiataua shared with Samoa News his 7-page written testimony, along with 81 separate pages of supporting documents — which are posted with the online version of this story.