The authors discuss how political discrimination in Puerto Rico has had an effect on the federal law on the subject and the caseload of the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. They discuss the history of political discrimination in public employment in the United States and in Puerto Rico. Furthermore, they examine the Supreme Court and the First Circuit’s cases concerning political discrimination. Finally, they proceed to analyze the statistics of the First Circuit’s cases in comparison to the rest of the circuits. With this data they confirm the pervasive nature of political discrimination cases in the District Court of Puerto Rico; in fact, more than half of all cases regarding political discrimination reviewed by the circuit courts have come from Puerto Rico.
Citation: Alexandra Sabater Baerga & Jean René Santiago Cruz, A Spoiled Spoils System: Puerto Rico’s Epidemic of Political Discrimination and the Federal Courts, 85 Rev. Jur. UPR 1327 (2016).