48 U.S.C. § 731B
Section 731b · Organization of a government pursuant to a constitution
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 43 court decisions — leading case Examining Bd. of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors v. Flores De Otero (1976)
Most recently applied in 167 F. Supp. 3d 279 - Vidal v. Garcia-Padilla (March 2016)
Applied most in the First Circuit Circuit (27 decisions)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Fully recognizing the principle of government by consent, sections 731b to 731e of this title are now adopted in the nature of a compact so that the people of Puerto Rico may organize a government pursuant to a constitution of their own adoption.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Codification
Section was not enacted as part of the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act which comprises this chapter.
Repeals
Section 6 of act July 3, 1950 provided that: “All laws or parts of laws inconsistent with this Act [enacting sections 731b to 731e of this title] are hereby repealed.”