Former Speaker Oscar C. Rasa, the indigenous group’s spokesman and adviser, yesterday said the lawsuit is about the “meaning” of the Covenant, which made the islands part of the U.S.
The outcome of the lawsuit, he added, will determine whether the “sacred trust” between the islands and the U.S. will be fulfilled.
He believes that his group’s perspective could be helpful to the court.
Rasa said their motion for leave to participate as friend of the court will ask the federal court to deny the federal government’s motion to dismiss the governor’s complaint, and to grant the CNMI’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
Last month, U.S. Department of Justice attorneys led by Theodore Atkinsons asked the federal court to dismiss the lawsuit because it lacked standing — it was not brought by the commonwealth’s attorney general as required by the CNMI Constitution.
DOJ also pointed out that under the Covenant, the U.S. Congress can extend federal immigration law to the islands.
Likewise, the governor’s economic disaster scenario was hypothetical and speculative, DOJ added.
Self-government
Rasa said their motion emphasizes the constitutional nature of the injury posed by the federal legislation.
He said they stressed the importance of the U.N. Charter and Trusteeship Agreement to an accurate understanding of the Covenant’s guarantee of self-government.
“Also, the validity of the federal statute at issue does not depend upon the characterization of that statute as being an ‘immigration’ law or a ‘labor’ law — points that the CNMI government, whose attention is focused more directly on preventing economic decline than on securing indigenous rights, does not adequately address,” the motion stated.
It added that the CNMI Descents for Self-Government and Indigenous Rights’ 4,100 members are interested in the lawsuit, and their interest and perspective are distinct from Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s lawsuit.
The group said under the federalization law, which will take effect in June, foreign workers in the CNMI will, for the first time, be eligible for permanent residency, and once this is achieved they will become eligible for U.S. citizenship.
This will result “in the sharp and progressive dilution of the indigenous people as a proportion of the total citizen population of their own homeland since the indigenous population is relatively small,” the motion stated.
Free of charge
Compared to Fitial’s lawsuit that will cost the CNMI $400,000 in legal fees, the motion filed by the indigenous group is free of charge, Rasa said, adding that the local O’Connor Berman Dotts & Banes law firm assisted them.
In a letter dated Jan. 12, attorney Michael W. Dotts told Rasa their law firm is interested in assisting the group in the legal fight against federalization.
“There will be no legal fees charged to you,” Dotts said.
He said they prepared a legal brief to submit to the court in Washington, D.C. arguing that federalization violates the rights of the citizens in CNMI.
“My firm is involved in this case because we believe federalization will hurt anyone here,” he said.
In its motion in support of Fitial’s lawsuit, Rasa’s group said federalization infringes on the CNMI’s self-government rights as guaranteed by the Covenant.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, “so long as the CNMI is specifically named in any federal act, however intrusive and obnoxious to the people of CNMI that act may be, then such act, by definition, does not violate ‘self-government,’ within the Covenant’s meaning of the term.”
The motion filed by Rasa’s group states that this “formalistic view is utterly contrary to the Covenant, its history, and to its interpretation by the courts.”
