Balzac v. Porto Rico

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Balzac v. Porto Rico
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 20, 1922 Decided April 10, 1922
Full case name: Balzac v. People of Porto Rico
Holding
Sixth Amendment protections do not apply to unincorporated territories of the United States.
Court membership
Chief Justice: William Howard Taft Associate Justices: Joseph McKenna, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., William R. Day, Willis Van Devanter, Mahlon Pitney, James Clark McReynolds, Louis Brandeis, George Sutherland
Case opinions
Majority by: Taft Joined by: McKenna, Day, Van Devanter, Pitney, McReynolds, Brandeis, Sutherland Concurrence by: Holmes

Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U.S. 298 (1922), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that certain provisions of the U.S. Constitution did not apply to territories not incorporated into the union. It originated when Jesús M. Balzac was prosecuted for criminal libel in a district court of Puerto Rico. Balzac declared that his rights had been violated under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as he was denied a trial by jury, since the code of criminal procedure of Puerto Rico did not grant a jury trial in misdemeanor cases. In the appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the judgments of the lower courts on the island in deciding that the provisions of the Constitution did not apply to a territory that belonged to the United States but was not incorporated into the Union. It has become known as one of the "Insular Cases".