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The Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands is a United States federal law that repealed and replaced the previous Organic Act of the Virgin Islands. It was passed on July 22, 1954 by the U.S. Congress to act as the basis for law in the United States Virgin Islands. Like other organic acts it functions as a constitution for a territory of the United States. [1]
The Revised Organic Act provides for:
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 local 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.
In the law of the United States, an insular area is a U.S.-associated jurisdiction that is not part of the 50 states or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three sovereign states each with a Compact of Free Association with the United States. The term also may be used to refer to the previous status of the Philippine Islands and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands when it existed.
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The various American territories differ from the U.S. states and Indian reservations as they are not sovereign entities. In contrast, each state has a sovereignty separate from that of the federal government and each federally recognized Native American tribe possesses limited tribal sovereignty as a "dependent sovereign nation". Territories are classified by incorporation and whether they have an "organized" government through an organic act passed by the Congress. American territories are under American sovereignty and, consequently, may be treated as part of the United States proper in some ways and not others. Unincorporated territories in particular are not considered to be integral parts of the United States, and the Constitution of the United States applies only partially in those territories.
In United States law, an organic act is an act of the United States Congress that establishes a territory of the United States and specifies how it is to be governed, or an agency to manage certain federal lands. In the absence of an organic law a territory is classified as unorganized.
The Guam Organic Act of 1950, is a United States federal law that redesignated the island of Guam as an unincorporated territory of the United States, established executive, legislative, and judicial branches, and transferred federal jurisdiction from the United States Navy to the United States Department of the Interior. For the first time in over three hundred years of foreign colonization, the people of Guam had some measure of self-governance, however limited. Before that time there was some participation in the Local Administration, through the mayors or "gobernadorcillos" in Spanish times, who acted under the supervision of the Governor of the Mariana Islands.
The Legislature of Guam is the law-making body for the United States territory of Guam. The unicameral legislative branch consists of fifteen senators, each serving for a two-year term. All members of the legislature are elected at-large with the island under one whole district. After the enactment of the Guam Organic Act in 1950, the First Guam Legislature was elected composing of 21 elected members. Today, the current fifteen-member 37th Guam Legislature was elected in November 2022.
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.
The Jones Law was an Organic Act passed by the United States Congress. The law replaced the Philippine Organic Act of 1902 and acted as a constitution of the Philippines from its enactment until 1934, when the Tydings–McDuffie Act was passed. The Jones Law created the first fully elected Philippine legislature.
The Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands is the highest court in the territory of the United States Virgin Islands. The Supreme Court assumed jurisdiction over all appeals from the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands, a trial level court, on January 29, 2007. The Supreme Court currently consists of a Chief Justice and two associate justices, but up to four associate justices may be appointed. Supreme Court justices are each appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Legislature for a ten-year term. There is no intermediate court of appeals, and the Supreme Court does not have discretion in hearing appeals. Appeals of Supreme Court decisions were heard by writ of certiorari by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit until December 29, 2012, but since then they have been heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, DC.
The District Court of Guam is a United States territorial court with jurisdiction over the United States territory of Guam. It sits in the capital, Hagåtña. Appeals of the court's decisions are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. It is not an Article III court, and therefore its judges do not have life tenure, but are appointed to ten-year terms.
The District Court of the Virgin Islands is a United States territorial court with jurisdiction over federal and diversity actions in the United States Virgin Islands, a United States territory and more specifically an insular area that is an unincorporated organized territory. The court sits in both St. Croix and St. Thomas. Unlike United States district courts, judges on the District Court of the Virgin Islands do not have life tenure, as the court is not an Article III court. Instead, the court is an Article IV court, created pursuant to Congress's Article IV, Section 3 powers. Appeals of the court's decisions are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.
The 2007 United States Virgin Islands Constitutional Convention election was an election to the Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U.S. Virgin Islands in the United States Virgin Islands on 12 June 2007. The convention was the fifth attempt to give the United States territory its own constitution; previous constitutional conventions had been elected in 1964, 1971, 1977 and 1980.
The Virgin Islands Superior Court is the trial court of general jurisdiction for the United States Virgin Islands. The court is composed of nine judges. They are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature. Effective January 29, 2007 the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands assumed jurisdiction over appeals from the Superior Court.
The Philippine Organic Act was a basic law for the Insular Government that was enacted by the United States Congress on July 1, 1902. It is also known as the Philippine Bill of 1902 and the Cooper Act, after its author Henry A. Cooper. The approval of the act coincided with the official end of the Philippine–American War.
The Government of Guam (GovGuam) is a presidential representative democratic system, whereby the president is the head of state and the governor is head of government, and of a multi-party system. Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States with policy relations between Guam and the US under the jurisdiction of the Office of Insular Affairs.
The Insular Government of the Philippine Islands was an unincorporated territory of the United States that was established in 1902 and was reorganized in 1935 in preparation for later independence. The Insular Government was preceded by the United States Military Government of the Philippine Islands and was followed by the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
The Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U.S. Virgin Islands proposed a constitution for the United States Virgin Islands in May 2009.
A referendum on councils and treasury was held in the United States Virgin Islands on 30 April 1953. It was largely a repetition of the questions from the 1948 referendum. The passage of all four questions in this referendum resulted in the 1954 Organic Act which governs relations with the United States of America to this day.
The Elective Governor Acts of 1968 are a pair of acts passed by the 90th United States Congress in 1968, which provide for the Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Governor of Guam to be popularly elected, rather than appointed as they had been up to that point. The two acts are individually titled the Virgin Islands Elective Governor Act and the Guam Elective Governor Act. The impetus for the acts came from extensive lobbying efforts by both Guamanians and Virgin Islanders. The Guam Legislature, led by Speaker Antonio Borja Won Pat, had begun lobbying Congress for popular elections in 1962. In the Virgin Islands, the act stemmed from the recommendations of the territory's first Constitutional Convention in 1964–5, which included the popular election of the governor. The acts were seen as a breakthrough for political reform both in Guam and the Virgin Islands. The Guam act was controversial, however, for authorizing federal auditing of the territory's accounts by the Interior Department—a practice that remained in place as of 2020.
The United States Virgin Islands are a group of around 90 islands, islets, and cays in the Caribbean region in which inhabitants were claimed by Spain in 1493. No permanent settlements occurred in the Spanish period and the islands were colonized by Denmark in 1671. The inhabitants remained Danish nationals until 1917. From that date, islanders have derived their nationality from the United States. Nationality is the legal means in which inhabitants acquire formal membership in a nation without regard to its governance type. In addition to being United States' nationals, Virgin Islanders are both citizens of the United States and [local] citizens of the Virgin Islands. Citizenship is the relationship between the government and the governed, the rights and obligations that each owes the other, once one has become a member of a nation.
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