courts that the Legislative Assembly could establish.
 Cases arising under the laws of the United States
 had to be tried in the District Court.

 I. A bill of rights was provided. (This was of particular
 significance because of the autocratic nature of the
 United States naval rule the Virgin Islands had
 experienced. The lack of freedom of the press under
 naval rule, for example, had subjected local leaders
 such as Rothschild Francis to various forms of
 persecution for opinions unfavorable to naval
 officials.)

 J. All local taxes and fees, and United States duties,
 taxes, and fees, were to be placed in the treasury of
 the Virgin Islands and credited to the specific
 municipality in which they were collected. (This
 provision made it clear that each municipality had
 not only its own legislature, but a separate treasury.)

 The Organic Act of 1936 represented a very significant step for the people of the
Virgin Islands. It was the first American constitutional document for the territory, and
institutionalized features that many of the inhabitants had hoped for from the beginning
of United States sovereignty in 1917-- a structured civil government, guaranteed
political freedoms, and liberal suffrage. Its removal of economic qualifications for
voting would bring about popular control of the elective offices of government. There
were also features that caused some concerns, such as the broad power of the
Secretary of the Interior and the right of the President to veto local legislation.
However, it was a big step forward. The Organic Act represented the beginning of
political democracy in the Virgin Islands, and made many residents feel that the
territory was at last truly a part of the United States.

 Revised Organic Act of 1954

 The Revised Organic Act of 1954 was signed into law by President Dwight
David Eisenhower on July 22, 1954. It represented a revision of the Organic Act of
1936, thus many of its provisions were quite similar to those of the 1936 Act.
Provisions that entailed significant differences or additions were:

 A. The Virgin Islands were formally designated an
 unincorporated territory of the United States. (This
 was the first official declaration of that status for the
 Virgin Islands, even though its local applicability had
 been rather clear before, based on the 1901
 Supreme Court delineation of an unincorporated
 territory. The declaration served formal notice that