Here we have Sotomayor ignoring federal law regarding the Puerto Rico territories. If Puerto can re-interpret federal law as it chooses, then the law is a treaty and Puerto Rico is independent, by decree. Essentially, federal rule over territories is unconstitutional, all territories are hereby free, according to Sotomayor.
Good idea? Sure, set the territories free. It's a bit illegal, what Sotomayor is doing but at this point law in the Swamp is really no longer Constitutional with this bunch of Supremes.
Before Tuesday, I’d have said that Puerto Rico had no chance to win its legal fight to let its municipalities and utilities declare bankruptcy. That's how the island hopes to resolve its overwhelming debt problems, but the federal bankruptcy code says that it can't.
That's what the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held last summer, unanimously. The statute seemed so clear that even Judge Juan Torruella, the appellate court’s only Puerto Rican member, concurred in an outraged separate opinion criticizing the federal law.
More from Bloomberg.com: Brussels on Highest Alert Level After 31 Killed in BombingsQuickTake Puerto Rico's SlideThen Sonia Sotomayor stepped in. Oral arguments before the Supreme Court rarely change the outcome of a case, yet Tuesday's session may turn out to be the exception. In a fascinating and unusual argument, Justice Sotomayor, who is herself of Puerto Rican descent, spoke by my count an astonishing 45 times. Sotomayor left no doubt that she was speaking as an advocate.
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