Balzac v. People of Porto Rico and the Problem of the Liberal Narrative of Citizenship.

Describing Puerto Ricans as second-class citizens affirms an ahistorical liberal narrative of citizenship. Drawing on the legislative histories of the citizenship laws for Puerto Rico, this article argues that in 1940 Congress began to enact jus soli or birthright citizenship for Puerto Rico, anchored in the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In Balzac v. People of Porto Rico (1922), the Supreme Court affirmed the principle that locality, not citizenship, determined the application of the Constitution in Puerto Rico. This article demonstrates the representation of Puerto Ricans as second-class citizens is not only historically inaccurate, but also obscures some of the fundamental dimensions of power established by the doctrine of separate and unequal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]