Reading Room Document

Department of Justice Views on the Constitution Adopted by the Constitutional Convention of the Virgin Islands

The following memorandum, initially drafted in the Office of Legal Counsel at the request of the Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, presents the Department of Justice's views on certain provisions of the constitution adopted by the 1980 constitutional convention of the Virgin Islands. This constitution was approved by Congress for submission to the people of the Virgin Islands by Pub. L. No. 97-21, 95 Stat. 105 (1981), but was subsequently rejected in a referendum. As of the date of publication of this volume, the Virgin Islands do not have a constitution. The following analysis of the provisions of the rejected constitution discusses important and recurring constitutional and legal issues arising in the context of federal-territorial relations. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/24596/download.

September 9, 1980