The Puerto Rico election cases

Cross posted on Political Arguments.

I'm knee deep in self-contemplation as I prepare an unusually introspective fellowship application, so my blogging has been shamefully light this week. Magnanimous soul that I am, I'll leave you with a bit of reading material for the holiday season.

As some people have noticed, Puerto Rico has been without a governor since the November election. The circumstances that preceded and followed this event make for lively discussion about colonialism, federalism, electoral systems, and political culture. What is the relationship between Federal and local courts in a colonial context? Whither the legitimacy of the Federal courts, which was supposed to rest on their being removed from "local interest," when Federal judges in Puerto Rico are notoriously given over to one party (pro-Statehood)—and many of the local judges are given over to the other (pro-Commonwealth)?

The island is mired in so much acrimony that riots have broken out in front of the Federal courthouse. The pro-Commonwealth candidate beat the pro-Statehood candidate by less than half of one percent, but the legislature is in pro-Statehood hands by a two-to-one margin. Party adherence borders on the fanatical, and even mildly dissenting legislators are kicked out of their caucus or stripped of all benefits. But the actual proportion of the electorate is about 48/48. Under these conditions, why does Puerto Rico insist on a first-past-the-post, instead of a proportional system?

And on an island that has under four million people living in thirty-five hundred square miles, why is there a bicameral legislature, instead of a single chamber?

In any case, the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit has just issued an opinion in what it has itself dubbed the "Puerto Rico election cases". I've had them explained to me, but I still haven't read them. When I do, I'll post a summary, but feel free to share your thoughts in the meantime. leave your thoughts over at Political Arguments.

¡Y no se pongan politiqueros, que éste es un weblog serio!