Incorporated territory

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An incorporated territory of the United States is a specific area under the jurisdiction of the United States, over which the United States Congress has determined that the United States Constitution is to be applied to the territory's inhabitants in its entirety (e. g. citizenship, trial by jury), in the same manner as it applies to the citizens of the U.S. states. In contrast, an unincorporated territory is an area under U.S. jurisdiction, to which only certain "natural" protections (e.g. freedom of speech, due process) of the Constitution, as well as any specific parts Congress has added, apply.

The term "incorporated" in this sense does not refer to the act of creating a civil government entity (e.g. a city or a town).

Incorporation as it applies to territories is regarded as a permanent condition. Once incorporated, an incorporated territory can no longer be de-incorporated; that is, it can never be excluded from the jurisdiction of the United States Constitution.

These incorporated territories form a federacy with the United States.

1 History
2 Classification of current U.S. territories
3 Classification of former U.S. territories & administered areas
4 External links

[edit] History

Most of the historic territories of the United States, including all the ones that eventually became U.S. states, were incorporated organized territories, that is, incorporated territories for which Congress established a local civil government. The distinction between unincorporated territories and incorporated territories did not arise until the 20th century, following the acquisition by the United States of possessions arising from the Spanish-American War, including the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Previously, the United States had acquired territory only through annexation, with all territories being de facto incorporated territories.

The distinction between incorporated and unincorporated territories was clarified in the 1937 United States Supreme Court case People of Puerto Rico v. Shell Oil Co., in which the Court determined that the Sherman Antitrust Act, which had referred only to "territories," applied to Puerto Rico even though it was not an incorporated territory of the United States. See also: Insular Cases, and Guano Islands Act.

In the contemporary sense, the term "unincorporated territory" refers primarily to insular areas. There is currently only one incorporated territory, Palmyra Atoll, which is not an organized territory. Conversely, a territory can be organized without being an incorporated territory, a contemporary example being Puerto Rico.

[edit] Classification of current U.S. territories

[edit] Incorporated organized territories

none since 1959

[edit] Incorporated unorganized territories

Palmyra Atoll is privately owned by the Nature Conservancy and administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is an archipelago of about 50 small islands about 1.56 square miles (4 km²) in area that lies about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south of Honolulu. The atoll was acquired by the United States in the 1898 annexation of the Republic of Hawaii. When the Territory of Hawaii was incorporated on April 30, 1900, Palmyra Atoll was incorporated as part of that territory. However, when Hawaii became a state in 1959, Palmyra Atoll was explicitly separated from the state, but it remained an incorporated territory.

[edit] Unincorporated organized territories

[edit] Unincorporated unorganized territories

American Samoa, technically unorganized, but self-governing under a constitution last revised in 1967
Baker Island, uninhabited
Howland Island, uninhabited
Jarvis Island, uninhabited
Johnston Atoll, no indigenous inhabitants, only military personnel and contractors
Kingman Reef, uninhabited
Midway Islands, no indigenous inhabitants, currently included in the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge
Navassa Island, uninhabited (claimed by Haiti)
Wake Island, no indigenous inhabitants, only contractor personnel (claimed by the Marshall Islands)