Lawmakers seek disavowal of Supreme Court's racist 'Insular Cases' that limited rights of people in U.S. territories

WASHINGTON — A mostly Democratic group of lawmakers are among those launching a renewed push for the Justice Department to condemn racist Supreme Court rulings from a century ago that shaped a legal landscape in which people living in U.S. territories were essentially treated as second-class citizens.

Civil rights groups and professional legal associations are also joining the effort targeting the so-called "Insular Cases," beginning with a letter sent to the Attorney General Merrick Garland this week.

Lawmakers, including members of the Senate and House of Representatives, are also holding a press conference Wednesday to bring attention to the issue.

Among the 43 lawmakers signing the new letter are Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the ranking member of House Judiciary Committee.

"Today, the Department of Justice has the opportunity to redress this historic error by unequivocally rejecting the discriminatory and racist doctrine of territorial incorporation established by the Insular Cases," the lawmakers wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.

Two Republicans who serve as their territories' delegates in Congress, James Moylan of Guam and Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon of Puerto Rico, also signed on. The other signatories are all Democrats.

The Insular Cases were a series of rulings issued in the 1900s soon after the U.S. had acquired Puerto Rico and other territories in which the court said people in those jurisdictions did not have all the constitutional rights of those living in the mainland.

Justice Henry Billings Brown in a 1901 case referred to territories as lands “inhabited by alien races” who might not abide by