Legislature of the Virgin Islands

Last updated
Legislature of the United States Virgin Islands
35th Legislature
Seal of Virgin Islands Legislature.png
Type
Type
Leadership
Novelle Francis (D)
since January 9, 2023
Vice President
Marvin Blyden (D)
since January 9, 2023
Majority Leader
Kenny Gittens (D)
since January 9, 2023
Minority Leader
Dwayne DeGraff (I)
since January 9, 2023 -->
Structure
Seats15
US Virgin Islands Legislature 2022.svg
Political groups
Majority
  •   Democratic (11)

Minority

Length of term
2 years (no term limits)
Authority Organic Act of the Virgin Islands
Salary$85,000
Elections
Last election
November 8, 2022
Next election
November 5, 2024
Meeting place
Legislature Building USVI 01.JPG
The Legislature Building,
Charlotte Amalie
Website
http://www.legvi.org/

The Legislature of the Virgin Islands is the territorial legislature of the United States Virgin Islands. The legislative branch of the unincorporated U.S. territory is unicameral, with a single house consisting of 15 senators, elected to two-year terms without term limits. The legislature meets in Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas.

Contents

History

The Danish period: 1852–1917

The roots of the modern legislature date to the passage of the Colonial Law in 1852 during the Danish colonial period. The law created a Colonial Assembly for the Danish West Indies, as well as the appointment of a vice-regent serving as the colony's governor executive, serving on behalf of the King of Denmark. Despite the name, the Colonial Assembly acted more as an advisory body than a true legislature. Vice-regents continued to reserve the right to reject or amend any law they did not see fit.

A further Colonial Law coming in 1863 broke the Assembly into two parts, creating a colonial council for the newly created St. Thomas and St. John Municipality, and a separate colonial council for the St. Croix Municipality. The 1863 law provided the councils to combine into a single legislature when called upon by the Vice-regent or by legislators themselves, and gave legislators greater say in the colony's finances. However, the Danish monarch still reserved the right to pick several members of the councils, giving Copenhagen a continued say in the colony's legislative affairs. The monarch-appointed vice-regent and the king also continued to reserve the right to pass or deny any colonial bills brought upon their desks. The voting franchise of this period remained low, hovering just under six percent.

The American period: 1917–present

Upon the U.S. purchase of the islands from Denmark in 1917 by fears of German expansion into the Caribbean, the renamed U.S. Virgin Islands government underwent a gradual overhaul. From 1917 to 1931, the U.S. Navy administered the islands, with a Navy officer serving gubernatorial duties, while the colonial councils for the territory's two municipalities created by the Danes fifty years earlier remained with little change. Islanders were granted American citizenship in 1927, and after popular discontent with incompetent naval rule, the islands came under the supervision of the federal Department of the Interior in 1931.

The U.S. Congress's passage of the 1936 Organic Act brought the greatest amount of self-government the islands had ever known. For the first time, all islanders above the age of 21 enjoyed universal suffrage. The colonial councils—now municipal councils—could combine when desired to form a Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly now could override gubernatorial vetoes with a two-thirds majority, a parliamentary procedure endowed to the U.S. Congress and various state legislatures. The federal Congress and President, however, continued to reserve the right to veto territorial legislation.

Modern legislature

The Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands of 1954 dissolved the two Municipal Councils, creating a permanent unified and unicameral Legislature of the Virgin Islands. A revision in the territory's constitution in 1966 increased the number of legislators from its original amount of 11 to 15.

Today, the Legislature of the Virgin Islands is a territorial legislative body with the same rights and powers comparable to that of many state legislatures within the United States.

Legislature Building

The senate's home is the Legislature Building, a historic building built in 1828 as Danish police barracks, modified extensively in 1884, which is included in the Charlotte Amalie Historic District. [1] [2]

Legislature

The Legislature, referred to as the Senate, is a unicameral body, one of the four such legislative bodies in the United States, along with Nebraska, Guam and the District of Columbia. The Legislature meets inside the Senate Building in Charlotte Amalie, a restored Danish and American military barracks building as well as a former high school.

It is composed of 15 senators, each serving two-year terms. The territory is divided into two multimember constituencies, with seven senators representing each, elected by block voting, while a single senator from St. John is elected at large. For a long time the Legislature was the only one of its kind in the United States where the Republican Party had no representation whatsoever, until the Hawaii Senate lost its sole Republican member in 2016.

Qualifications to be a senator include being over or at least 21 years of age, a U.S. citizen, a resident of the Virgin Islands for three years, and a qualified resident of their representing district.

Current composition

Party
(Shading indicates majority/plurality)
Total
Democratic Independent
Citizens
Independent
End of previous Legislature 100515
Begin (January 9, 2023)110415
Latest voting share

Members

DistrictNamePartyTook Office
At-large Angel Bolques Jr. Democratic2022
St. CroixFranklin JohnsonIndependent2021
Diane Capehart Democratic2023
Javan James, Sr. Democratic2019
Kenneth Gittens Democratic2019
Marise James Democratic2023
Novelle Francis Democratic2015
Samuel Carrion Independent2021
St. Thomas/
St. John
Alma Francis Heyliger Independent2021
Carla Joseph Democratic2021
Donna Frett-Gregory Democratic2019
Dwayne DeGraff Independent2017
Ray Fonseca Democratic2023
Marvin Blyden Democratic2015
Milton Potter Democratic2021

Source: [3]

Past composition of the Legislature

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of the United States Virgin Islands</span> Politics of a U.S. territory

Politics of the United States Virgin Islands takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic dependency, whereby the Governor is the head of the territory's government, and of a multi-party system. United States Virgin Islands are an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs of the United States Department of the Interior. Executive power is exercised by the local government of the Virgin Islands. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senate</span> Upper house of a bicameral legislature

A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate, so-called as an assembly of the senior and therefore considered wiser and more experienced members of the society or ruling class. However the Roman Senate was not the ancestor or predecessor of modern parliamentarism in any sense, because the Roman senate was not a de jure legislative body.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands</span> Capital city of the United States Virgin Islands

Charlotte Amalie, located on St. Thomas, is the capital and the largest city of the United States Virgin Islands. It was founded in 1666 as Taphus. In 1691, the town was renamed to Charlotte Amalie after the Danish queen Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (1650–1714). It has a deep-water harbor that was once a haven for pirates and is now one of the busiest ports of call for cruise ships in the Caribbean, with about 1.5 million-plus cruise ship passengers landing there annually. Protected by Hassel Island, the harbor has docking and fueling facilities, machine shops, and shipyards and was a U.S. submarine base until 1966. The Town has been inhabited for centuries. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1493, the area was inhabited by Caribs, Arawaks, Ciboney and Taíno native peoples. It is on the southern shore at the head of Saint Thomas Harbor. In 2010 the City had a population of 18,481, which makes it the largest city in the Virgin Islands Archipelago. Hundreds of ferries and yachts pass by the Town each week.

Bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single group. As of 2022, roughly 40% of world's national legislatures are bicameral, while unicameralism represents 60% nationally and much more at the subnational level.

Unicameralism is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly 60% of all national legislatures and an even greater share of subnational legislatures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands</span> One of the main islands of the U.S. Virgin Islands

Saint Thomas is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Along with surrounding minor islands, it is one of three county-equivalents in the USVI. Together with Saint John, it forms one of the districts of the USVI. The territorial capital and port of Charlotte Amalie is located on the island. As of the 2020 census, the population of Saint Thomas was 42,261, about 48.5% of the total population of the United States Virgin Islands. The island has a land area of 32 square miles (83 km2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico</span> Territorial legislature of Puerto Rico

The Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico is the territorial legislature of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, responsible for the legislative branch of the government of Puerto Rico. The Assembly is a bicameral legislature consisting of an upper house, the Senate normally composed of 27 senators, and the lower house, the House of Representatives normally consisting of 51 representatives. Eleven members of each house are elected at-large rather than from a specific legislative district with all members being elected for a four-year term without term limits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryland Senate</span> Upper house of the state legislature

The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single-member districts, the Senate is responsible, along with the Maryland House of Delegates, for passage of laws in Maryland, and for confirming executive appointments made by the Governor of Maryland.

A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. Still, in a few instances, it refers to a national legislature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utah State Legislature</span> Legislative branch of the state government of Utah

The Utah State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. It is a bicameral body, comprising the Utah House of Representatives, with 75 state representatives, and the Utah Senate, with 29 state senators. There are no term limits for either chamber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Christian</span> United States historic place

Fort Christian is a Dano-Norwegian-built fort in Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Built 1672-1680, early in the first successful colonial establishment on the island, the fort served as a critical point of defense and government during the entire period of Dano-Norwegian, and later Danish, administration, which ended in 1917 with the sale of the islands to the United States. It currently holds the St. Thomas Museum, which holds artifacts and art of the Dano-Norwegian period. It was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oregon Territorial Legislature</span> A defunct legislative body by the United States Congress

Oregon's Territorial Legislature was a bicameral legislative body created by the United States Congress in 1848 as the legislative branch of the government of the Oregon Territory. The upper chamber Council and lower chamber House of Representatives first met in July 1849; they served as the region's legislative body until Oregon became a state in February 1859, when they were replaced by the bicameral Oregon State Legislature.

Charlotte Amalie High School (CAHS) is a public high school housing a population of just over 1400 students, and over 130 members of faculty and staff. It is located in what is colloquially called the "town area" of the island of St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands. It is named after the official name for the "town area," Charlotte Amalie. It is a part of the St. Thomas-St. John School District. It is the territory's most populous high school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Amalie Historic District</span> United States historic place

The Charlotte Amalie Historic District in Charlotte Amalie in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands is a 165.3 acres (0.669 km2) historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tregenza Roach</span> U.S. Virgin Islands politician

Tregenza A. Roach is a Kittitian-American politician, attorney, and former journalist. Since 2019, Roach has been serving as the 12th Lieutenant Governor of the United States Virgin Islands. Roach previously was a senator at the Legislature of the Virgin Islands from 2013 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith L. Williams</span> US Virgin Islands educator and suffragist

Edith L. Williams was a United States Virgin Islands educator, women's rights activist, and suffragist. Williams was the first woman who attempted to vote in the Virgin Islands and when she was denied the right to register, she petitioned the court along with Eulalie Stevens and Anna M. Vessup to review their qualifications. They won their case and subsequently women throughout the Virgin Islands who were literate and property owners were allowed to vote. A bust of Williams was installed in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Veterans Memorial Park in Charlotte Amalie, and the James Madison Elementary School was renamed as the Edith L. Williams School in 1981 in her honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bertha C. Boschulte</span> American educator, womens rights activist, statistician and politician (1906–2004)

Bertha C. Boschulte was an American educator, women's rights activist, statistician and politician. During her tenure as a teacher, she actively worked to attain women's suffrage in the Virgin Islands. After obtaining her master's degree in Public Health, she worked as the director of the Statistical Service from 1952 and was then appointed as director of the Division of Vital Records and Statistical Services. From 1955 to 1957, she was the General Services director of the Department of Health. Boschulte ran for a Senate seat and was elected in 1964, serving one term. She worked on the Commission on the Status of Women from 1969 and in 1970 was elected chair of the Virgin Islands Board of Education. In 1976, the new Junior High School in Bovoni Estate was named the Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School, in her honor.

Ella Gifft, also Ella Gift, was a Black entrepreneur and suffragist from the United States Virgin Islands, who founded the Suffragist League and was one of the first women to register to vote in the territory. She smuggled alcohol into the territory during the prohibition era, activity which is remembered in the folk song "Over the Side".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">35th Virgin Islands Legislature</span> Virgin Islands legislative session

The 35th Virgin Islands Legislature is the current meeting of the Legislature of the Virgin Islands. It has convened in Charlotte Amalie on January 9, 2023, during the first two years of Governor Albert Bryan’s second term.

References

  1. "Legislature Building". VINow.com.
  2. Russell Wright (May 20, 1976). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Charlotte Amalie Historic District". National Park Service . Retrieved May 24, 2017. With 28 photos from 1976 (#2 shows the Legislature Building).
  3. "35th Legislature Senators Commence 2-Year Term Following Swearing-In Ceremony".
  4. "31st Legislature Sworn In at Brief Public Ceremony Before First Session". St. Thomas Source. Retrieved 2015-01-12.