§2 Untitled Section

Summary

Allows the legislatures of the Virgin Islands and Guam to hold constitutional conventions to write local constitutions that fit inside the current relationship with the United States. Those constitutions must accept U.S. sovereignty and follow the U.S. Constitution, treaties, and federal laws (including parts of the territorial organic acts that are not about local self-government). They must set up a republican government with three branches (executive, legislative, judicial), include a bill of rights, cover the local self-government topics now in the organic acts, and provide a system of local courts. For Guam, only U.S. citizens who live in Guam may be given the vote, and any Guam provisions about local courts do not take effect until Congress passes a law about how Guam’s local courts will relate to the federal courts.