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TheUnited States territorial courts aretribunals established interritories of the United States by theUnited States Congress, pursuant to its power underArticle Four of the United States Constitution, theTerritorial Clause.[1] Most United States territorial courts are defunct because the territories under their jurisdiction have become states or been retroceded.
There are three currently operating United States territorial courts:[2]
Their jurisdiction is similar to that ofUnited States district courts, but despite the similarity of names, they are not "United States district courts" (though they sometimes use that term). "United States district courts", created underArticle III of the U.S. Constitution, exist only inUnited States federal judicial districts, which are found only in the 50U.S. states, theDistrict of Columbia, andPuerto Rico.
The territorial courts themselves, as Article IV courts, also assume the jurisdiction of aUnited States bankruptcy court in their respective territories; they do not have separate bankruptcy courts under their supervision, as do the Article III U.S. district courts.
Article IV judges do not have the authority to decide petitioners' appeals or be appointed to aUnited States Court of Appeals.[1] The U.S. Supreme Court caseNguyen v. United States, 539 U.S. 69 (2003), presented the question of whether a panel of the Court of Appeals consisting of two Article III judges and one Article IV judge had the authority to decide petitioners' appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court declared that it did not.
There is no federal court in the territory ofAmerican Samoa.[3] Matters of federal law arising in American Samoa have generally been adjudicated in theUnited States District Court for the District of Hawaii or theDistrict Court for the District of Columbia.[3]
Though they could be considered "territorial courts" in a semantic sense (since their jurisdictions are not states), theUnited States District Court for the District of Columbia, theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and theUnited States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico arenot U.S. territorial courts since D.C. and Puerto Rico are Article III federal judicial districts.
In addition, the District of Columbia has two other local courts, theSuperior Court of the District of Columbia and theDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals, which hear cases involving D.C. local law only. Though their jurisdiction is similar to state courts, like other federal courts they were created by Congress and their final appellate court is theSupreme Court of the United States. Like the D.C. federal courts, they are "territorial courts" in a semantic sense, but arenot truly U.S. territorial courts. However, these courts are not Article III courts, as the judges serve only 15-year terms.
TheAmerican legal system includes bothstate courts andfederal courts.Puerto Rico and theNorthern Mariana Islands have their own courts which hear cases involving commonwealth law. Though they could be called "territorial courts" by some (since a U.S. commonwealth is a type of territory), they arenot U.S. territorial courts as they were created by the commonwealths themselves and not by Congress; except for being in commonwealths, they are the same as state courts.
In 1961 Congress legislated to provide Puerto Rico with a judicial state-federalcourt structure equal to that of States. At the time, theUnited States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reviewed not only judgments of the federal district court, but those of thePuerto Rico Supreme Court as well. This changed withPub. L. 87–189,[4] which provided that review of Puerto Rico Supreme Court judgments would now be before theU.S. Supreme Court.
OnBalzac v. Porto Rico,258 U.S. 298 (1922) the U.S. Supreme Court concluded as an argument of non-incorporation:
The United States District Court (in Puerto Rico) is not a true United States court established under Article 3 of the Constitution to administer the judicial power of the United States therein conveyed. It is created by virtue of the sovereign congressional faculty, granted under Article 4, §3, of the Constitution, of making all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory belonging to the United States. The resemblance of its jurisdiction to that of true United States courts, in offering an opportunity to nonresidents of resorting to a tribunal not subject to local influence, does not change its character as a mere territorial court.
InGlidden Co. v. Zdanok,370 U.S.530 (1962) supra, the court made the following statement regarding courts inunincorporated territories:
Upon like considerations, Article III has been viewed as inapplicable to courts created in unincorporated territories outside the mainland,Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244, 266 -267;Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U.S. 298, 312 -313; cf.Dorr v. United States, 195 U.S. 138, 145, 149, and to the consular courts established by concessions from foreign countries,In re Ross, 140 U.S. 453, 464-465, 480.
Article Three of the United States Constitution establishes thejudicial branch of thefederal government. This constitutional article was expressly extended to theUnited States District Court forthe District of Puerto Rico by theU.S. Congress through the federal law 89-571, 80 Stat. 764, and signed by the PresidentLyndon B. Johnson in 1966. From this moment on, judges appointed to serve on the Puerto Rico federal district court have been Article III judges appointed under the Constitution of the United States. In addition in 1984 one of the judges of the federal district court, Chief JudgeJuan R. Torruella, a native of the island, was appointed to serve in theUnited States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit with jurisdiction over Puerto Rico, Massachusetts,Rhode Island, Maine, and New Hampshire.[5]
In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signedPub. L. 89–571[6] which transformed the Article IV federal district court in Puerto Rico into an Article III Court. This Act of Congress was not conducted pursuant to Article IV of the Constitution, the Territorial Clause,but rather under Article III. This marks the first and only occasion in United States history in which Congress established an Article III Court in a territory other than the District of Columbia. Since then, judges appointed to serve on the Puerto Rico federal district court are Article III judges appointed under the Constitution of the United States. Like their mainland brethren they are entitled tolife tenure and salary protection. Senate Report 1504 reveals the reason for the enactment of this Law:[7]
There does not appear any reason why the U.S. District Judges for the District of Puerto Rico should not be placed in a position of parity as to tenure with all other Federal Judges throughout our judicial system. Moreover, federal litigants in Puerto Rico should not be denied the benefit of judges made independent by life tenure from the pressures of those who might influence his chances of reappointment, which benefits the Constitution guarantees to the litigants in all other Federal Courts. These judges in Puerto Rico have and will have the exacting same heavy responsibilities as all other Federal district judges and, therefore, they should have the same independence, security, and retirement benefits to which all other Federal district judges are entitled.
This important change in the federal judicial structure of the island was implemented not as a request of the Commonwealth government, but rather at the repeated request of the Judicial Conference of the United States.[8]
Between 1966 and 2008, eighteen Article III judges were appointed to sit in the District of Puerto Rico.
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| Territorial courts | |
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| Note | American Samoa does not have a district court or federal territorial court; federal matters there go to theDistrict of Columbia,Hawaii, orits own Supreme Court. |
