Federal relationship. The latter generated a number of concerns. Did that restriction
imply that the status of the Virgin Islands with the Federal government was viewed as
unchangeable? If the possibility of change or adjustments was recognized, would it
not be most logical to make any desired changes prior to writing a constitution?

 Subsequent developments seemed to demonstrate that Virgin Islands' voters
came to believe that writing a constitution before reviewing the territorial-Federal
relationship was, in local terms, "putting the cart before the horse". Two constitutional
conventions, convened in 1977 and 1980, decided to write a Federal Relations Act in
addition to a constitution. Inserting a step that the Constitutional Authorization Act had
not contained, the proposed constitutions were submitted to local voters for prior
approval before transmission to the Congress. Neither constitution received popular
approval.

 The Legislature of the Virgin Islands then authorized a referendum in 1982 to
allow voters to indicate which should be done first: the writing of a constitution or the
clarification of the territorial-Federal relationship. Voters chose the latter.
Consequently, local arrangements were set into motion for a referendum on the
preferred status of the Virgin Islands, as explained in the section of this publication.