Guam is an organized,unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña,and the most populous village is Dededo. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States,reckoned from the geographic center of the U.S. In Oceania,Guam is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands and the largest island in Micronesia.
The history of Guam starts with the early arrival around 2000 BC of Austronesian people ent American rule of the island began with the 1898 Spanish–American War. Guam's history of colonialism is the longest among the Pacific islands.
The Northern Mariana Islands,officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,is an unincorporated territory and commonwealth of the United States consisting of 14 islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The CNMI includes the 14 northernmost islands in the Mariana Archipelago;the southernmost island,Guam,is a separate U.S. territory. The Northern Mariana Islands were listed by the United Nations as a non-self governing territory until 1990.
The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1994. The Imperial Japanese South Seas Mandate had been seized by the US during the Pacific War,as Japan had occupied the territory since the League of Nations gave Japan mandate over the area after World War I. However,in the 1930s,Japan left the League of Nations,and then invaded additional lands. During World War II,military control of the islands was disputed,but by the end of the war the islands had come under control of the Allies. The Trust Territory of the Pacific was created to administer the islands as part of the United States,while still under the auspices of the United Nations. Most of the island groups in the territory became independent states,with some degree of ties kept with the United States:the Federated States of Micronesia,Marshall Islands and Palau are today independent states in a Compact of Free Association with the US,while the Northern Mariana Islands remain under US jurisdiction,as an unincorporated territory and commonwealth.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts:
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.
The District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands is a federal territorial court whose jurisdiction comprises the United States-affiliated Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). It was established by Act of Congress in 1977,pursuant to an international agreement between the United States and the CNMI that brought the CNMI under United States sovereignty. The court began hearing cases in January 1978. The court regularly sits in Saipan but may sit elsewhere in the CNMI. The court has the same jurisdiction as United States district courts,including diversity jurisdiction and bankruptcy jurisdiction. However,the District Court is not an Article III U.S. District Court,and because of that its judge is appointed for a 10-year term instead of for life. Appeals are taken to the Ninth Circuit.
Benjamin Taisacan Manglona was a Northern Marianan politician and civil engineer. He is the CNMI's longest serving elected official having served as a congressman,senator,and former mayor of Rota. Manglona served as the third lieutenant governor of the Northern Mariana Islands from 1990 to 1994 and as Mayor of Rota from 1998 to 2006.
The United States territory of Guam is divided into nineteen municipalities,called villages. Each village is governed by an elected mayor. Village populations range in size from under 1,000 to over 40,000. In the 2020 census,the total population of Guam was 153,836. Each municipality,known as an "election district" by the United States Census Bureau,is counted as a county equivalent by the Census Bureau for statistical purposes.
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 Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,1 CMC §3101,is the highest court of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI),exercising civil and criminal appellate jurisdiction over commonwealth law matters. It should not be confused with the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands,which exercises jurisdiction over federal law. The Supreme Court sits in the capital,Saipan,and consists of a Chief Justice and two Associate Justices. The CNMI has no intermediate appellate commonwealth law court,which means that the CNMI Supreme Court hears appeals directly from the trial-level Superior Court.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Guam since June 9,2015 in accordance with a ruling from the District Court of Guam on June 5 that the territory's prohibition of same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Guam was the first overseas territory of the United States to recognize same-sex marriage. On August 27,2015,the Guam Marriage Equality Act of 2015 passed by the Guam Legislature came into effect,officially incorporating the federal court ruling into statutory law.
Eulogio "Eloy" Songao Inos was a Northern Marianan politician who served as the seventh governor of the Northern Mariana Islands from 2013 to 2015. Inos,a member of the Republican Party,also served as the eighth lieutenant governor from 2009 to 2013.
Ralph Deleon Guerrero Torres is a Northern Marianan politician,who served as the eighth governor of the Northern Mariana Islands,from December 29,2015,to January 9,2023. He is a Republican from Saipan,Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The third longest-serving governor in CNMI history,Torres took office upon the death of Governor Eloy Inos on December 29,2015,before being reelected as governor in his own right in 2018. He previously served as the tenth lieutenant governor,having been elected to that post in 2014.
Gilbert Joseph Birnbrich was the Attorney General of the Northern Mariana Islands from 2014 to 2015.
