Noah Feldman, Columnist

Supreme Court Affirms That Puerto Rico Is Really a U.S. Colony

Unlike states, the commonwealth can't use federal bankruptcy laws, or send congressmen to change them.

June 14, 2016 at 1:50 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Witness.
Photographer: Erika Rodriguez/Bloomberg

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Last week the Supreme Court insulted Puerto Rico by saying its people aren’t sovereign. This week the court added injury to the insult, denying Puerto Rico access to federal bankruptcy laws that would have created a path to recovery for its struggling utilities.

The decision on Monday passed the ball to Congress to change the law or arrange a bailout. At the same time, it underscored the outrageousness of Puerto Rico’s distinct legal status as a quasi-colony: the Commonwealth will have to lobby a Congress in which its residents, U.S. citizens all, have no representation.