Title 48 — Territories and Insular PossessionsRelease 119-84

§2 Untitled Section

Title 48 › Chapter CHAPTER 12— - VIRGIN ISLANDS [1954] › § 2

Last updated Apr 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Allows the legislatures of the Virgin Islands and Guam to call conventions to write constitutions for local self-government while keeping the current relationship with the United States. Any such constitution must accept U.S. sovereignty and that the U.S. Constitution, treaties, and federal laws that apply there are supreme (including parts of their Organic Acts that are not about local government). The constitution must set up a government with three branches (executive, legislative, judicial), include a bill of rights, cover the same local-government topics now in their Organic Acts, and set up local courts. For Guam, only U.S. citizens who live in Guam may vote, and Guam’s local-court rules can’t take effect until Congress passes a law about how those courts link to the federal courts.

Full Legal Text

Title 48, §2

Territories and Insular Possessions — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

[Constitutional conventions and draft provisions] (a) The Legislatures of the Virgin Islands and Guam, respectively, are authorized to call constitutional conventions to draft, within the existing territorial-Federal relationship, constitutions for the local self-government of the people of the Virgin Islands and Guam.

“(b)Such constitutions shall—

“(1)recognize, and be consistent with, the sovereignty of the United States over the Virgin Islands and Guam, respectively, and the supremacy of the provisions of the Constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States applicable to the Virgin Islands and Guam, respectively, including, but not limited to, those provisions of the Organic Act [section 1405 et seq. of this title] and Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands [this chapter] and the Organic Act of Guam [section 1421 et seq. of this title] which do not relate to local self-government.

“(2)provide for a republican form of government, consisting of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial;

“(3)contain a bill of rights;

“(4)deal with the subject matter of those provisions of the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands of 1954, as amended, and the Organic Act of Guam, as amended, respectively, which relate to local self-government;

“(5)with reference to Guam, provided that the voting franchise may be vested only in residents of Guam who are citizens of the United States;

“(6)provide for a system of local courts consistent with the provisions of the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands, as amended; and

“(7)provide for the establishment of a system of local courts the provisions of which shall become effective no sooner than upon the enactment of legislation regulating the relationship between the local courts of Guam with the Federal judicial system.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

48 U.S.C. § 2

Title 48 — Territories and Insular Possessions

Last Updated

Apr 22, 2026

Release point: 119-84