giving a new Organic Act to Porto Rico, the
United States has been liberal in granting to the
islands acquired by the Treaty of Paris most of
the American constitutional guaranties, but has
been sedulous to avoid forcing a jury system
on a Spanish and civil-law country until it
desired it. We cannot find any intention to
depart from this policy in making Porto Ricans
American citizens, explained as this is by the
desire to put them as individuals on an exact
equality with citizens from the American
homeland, to secure them more certain
protection against the world, and to give them
an opportunity, should they desire, to move
into the United States proper, and there
without naturalization to enjoy all political and
other rights.

 We need not dwell on another
 consideration which requires us not lightly to
 infer, from acts thus easily explained on other
 grounds, an intention to incorporate in the
 Union these distant ocean communities of a
 different origin and language from those of our
 continental people. Incorporation has always
 been a step, and an important one, leading to
 statehood. Without, in the slightest degree,
 intimating an opinion as to the wisdom of such a
 policy, for that is not our province, it is
 reasonable to assume that, when such a step is
 taken, it will be begun and taken by Congress
 deliberately, and with a clear declaration of
 purpose, and not left a matter of mere
 inference or construction.

 [6] Counsel for the plaintiff in error also
 rely on the organization of a United States
 District Court in Porto Rico, on the allowance of
 review of the Porto Rican Supreme Court in
 cases when the Constitution of the United
 States is involved, on the statutory permission
 that Porto Rican youth can attend West Point
 and Annapolis Academies, on the authorized
 sale of United States stamps in the island, on
 the extension of revenue, navigation,
 immigration, national banking, bankruptcy,
 federal employers' liability, safety appliance,
 extradition, and census laws in one way or
 another to Porto Rico. With the background of
 the considerations already stated, none of
 these, nor all of them put together, furnish
 ground for the conclusion pressed on us.


 [7, 8] The United States District Court is
not a true United States court established
under article 3 of the Constitution to administer
the judicial power of the United States therein
conveyed. It is created by virtue of the
sovereign congressional faculty, granted under
article 4, 3, of that instrument, of making all
needful rules and regulations respecting the
territory belonging to the United States. The
resemblance of its jurisdiction to that of true
United States courts, in offering an opportunity
to nonresidents of resorting to a tribunal not
subject to local influence, does not change its
character as a mere territorial court. Nor does
the legislative recognition that federal
constitutional questions may arise in litigation in
Porto Rico have any weight in this discussion.
The Constitution of the United States is in force
in Porto Rico as it is wherever and whenever
the sovereign power of that government is
exerted. This has not only been admitted, but
emphasized, by this court in all its authoritative
expressions upon the issues arising in the
Insular Cases, especially in the Downes v.
Bidwell and the Dorr Cases. The Constitution,
however, contains grants of power, and
limitations which in the nature of things are not
always and everywhere applicable and the real
issue in the Insular Cases was not whether the
Constitution extended to the Philippines or
Porto Rico when we went there, but which
ones of its pro- visions were applicable by way
of limitation upon the exercise of executive and
legislative power in dealing with new conditions
and requirements. The guaranties of certain
fundamental personal rights declared in the
Constitution, as, for instance, that no person
could be deprived of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law, had from the
beginning full application in the Philippines and
Porto Rico, and, as this guaranty is one of the
most fruitful in causing litigation in our own
country, provision was naturally made for similar
controversy in Porto Rico. Indeed, provision is
made for the consideration of constitutional
questions coming on appeal and writs of error
from the Supreme Court of the Philippines,
which are certainly not incorporated in the
 Union. Judicial Code, 248 (Comp. St. 1225a).

 On the whole, therefore, we find no
 features in the Organic Act of Porto Rico of
 1917 from which we can infer the purpose of
 Congress to incorporate Porto Rico into the