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I don’t think so
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Posted on Oct 24 2011
The other day I was catching up on my reading and I came across a copy of Public Law 17-40. In it I found a reference to Senate Legislative Initiative 11-1. These documents together establish that only persons of Northern Marianas Descent can vote on matters concerning Article 12 of the CNMI Constitution.
Article 1, Section 101 of the Covenant states, “The Northern Mariana Islands upon termination of the Trusteeship Agreement will become a self-governing commonwealth to be known as the ‘Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,’ in political union with and under the sovereignty of the United States of America.”
Article 5, Section 501(a) of the Covenant declares, “To the extent that they are not applicable of their own force, the following provisions of the Constitution of the United States will be applicable within the Northern Mariana Islands as if the Northern Mariana Islands were one of the several States Amendment 15…”
The 15th amendment of the U.S. Constitution clearly states that, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
Taken together, this simply means that the Constitution of the United States is the law of the land (to include the NMI) and the people of the NMI understand and agree to this relationship, that the people of the NMI will acknowledge and obey the law as laid out in the U.S. Constitution.
So, who thought this was a good idea? Who thought it was a good idea to deny U.S. citizens the right to vote? Here in the NMI I hear lots of chatter about the U.S. Constitution and rights of the people. So who didn’t actually read the U.S. Constitution OR the Covenant before passing this legislation? Why has this not been challenged in a court of law? U.S. citizens Americans are being denied the right to vote? Without challenge? Yeah, right. With only about 14 months until the elections, I don’t think so.
[B]John H. Davis[/B] [I]Fina Sisu, Saipan[/I]
