; Whereas in 1917, Denmark transferred to the United States sovereignty of the Danish West Indies, now known as the Virgin Islands of the United States; Whereas in 1976, the Northern Mariana Islands entered into a covenant with the United States establishing the territory’s status as a self-governing commonwealth in political union with the United States; Whereas the Insular Cases today negatively impact a community of nearly 4,000,000 Americans living in Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands of the United States, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa; Whereas the doctrine established by the Insular Cases is still used to perpetuate the egregious unequal treatment of United States citizens and nationals in the territories; Whereas jurists and legal scholars have recognized that the Insular Cases rest on reasoning that runs afoul the original intent of the framers of the United States Constitution; and Whereas the imperialist and racist ideologies underlying the Insular Cases must be rejected: Now, therefore, be it