Afterword

Summary

In the century since the collective naturalization of Puerto Ricans, it has become clear that citizenship is still important. Citizenship brought Puerto Ricans the enduring freedom to migrate within the United States, which millions have done. The Supreme Court has been unwilling to follow the Insular Cases precedents that declared citizenship irrelevant to the application of the Constitution abroad. This refusal reflects the impossibility of harmonizing constitutional ideals with imperial aspirations constituted by racial hierarchy and conceived in racist terms. Today, harms to Puerto Ricans from racism, their association with foreignness, and their lack of federal voting rights are glaring. So is the rare and shocking spectacle of case law as racist as the law recounted in this book remaining largely untouched by time. The Constitution once promised citizenship, eventual statehood, and full constitutional rights to all. That vision is worth remembering and resurrecting.