ABSTRACT
The United States begins to conceptualize itself as a postcolonial global empire following the Spanish War. The Supreme Court authorized Congress to enact legislation selectively treating occupied territories as part of the United States for international purposes. This chapter emphasizes two different dimensions of the undemocratic nature of the Constitution, namely one that highlights the borderland status of unincorporated territories and one that underlines the separate and unequal status of the subjects inhabiting these localities within the US global empire. Sanford Levinson analysis leaves the reader wondering if it is simply not better to throw away the US Constitution and write a new document premised on fostering more democracy, both scholars also offer suggestions for correcting the undemocratic dimensions of this legal text. The point, however, is to note that this is an alternative argument that is part of a broader conversation about addressing the separate and unequal status of Puerto Ricans within the US global empire.
