48 U.S.C. § 1421a
Unincorporated territory; capital; powers of government; suits against government; type of government; supervision
Guam is declared to be an unincorporated territory of the United States and the capital and seat of government thereof shall be located at the city of Agana, Guam. The government of Guam shall have the powers set forth in this chapter, shall have power to sue by such name, and, with the consent of the legislature evidenced by enacted law, may be sued upon any contract entered into with respect to, or any tort committed incident to, the exercise by the government of Guam of any of its lawful powers. The government of Guam shall consist of three branches, executive, legislative, and judicial, and its relations with the Federal Government in all matters not the program responsibility of another Federal department or agency, shall be under the general administrative supervision of the Secretary of the Interior.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 37
cases (9 in the last 5 years), 1951–2026 · leading case: Ngiraingas v. Sanchez, 495 U.S. 182 (1990).
Ngiraingas v. Sanchez, 495 U.S. 182 (1990). “384 , § 3, as amended, 48 U. S. C. § 1421a (1982 ed.), unless Congress or the Guam Legislature waived Guam's immunity.”
People of Guam v. Benny Toves Guerrero, 290 F.3d 1210 (9th Cir. 2002). “Ill The United States formally acquired Guam from Spain in 1899 after the Spanish-American War, and, with the exception of a three-year Japanese occupation during World War II, it has remained in the United States’s possession since that time.”
Arnold Davis v. Guam, 932 F.3d 822 (9th Cir. 2019). “The Organic Act (1) designated Guam as an unincorporated territory of the United States subject to Congress’s plenary power, 48 U.S.C. § 1421a; (2) established executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government for the Territory, id.”
Yosh Sakamoto v. Duty Free Shoppers, Ltd., 764 F.2d 1285 (9th Cir. 1985). “Since Guam is an unincorporated territory enjoying only such powers as may be delegated to it by the Congress in the Organic Act of Guam, 48 U.S.C. § 1421a, the Government of Guam is in essence an instrumentality of the federal government.”
United States v. Ricardo Bordallo, Governor of Guam, 857 F.2d 519 (9th Cir. 1988). ““ ‘[LJocal’ means of or pertaining to a political subdivision within a State.” 18 U.S.C. § 666 (d)(4) (1984) (emphasis added).”
People of the Territory of Guam v. Concepcion Okada, 694 F.2d 565 (9th Cir. 1982). “Guam, as an unincorporated territory, 48 U.S.C. § 1421a (1976), is subject to this plenary power.”
United States v. Frederick Obak, 884 F.3d 934 (9th Cir. 2018). “”); see also 48 U.S.C. § 1421a (“Guam is declared to be an unincorporated territory of the United States.”
Gov't of Guam v. United States, 950 F.3d 104 (D.C. Cir. 2020). “” 48 U.S.C. § 1421a. Against this colonial backdrop, the Navy constructed and operated the Ordot Dump for the disposal of municipal and military waste sometime in the 1940s.”
Gov't of Guam ex rel. Guam Econ. Dev. Auth. v. United States, 179 F.3d 630 (9th Cir. 1999). “See § 3 (codified at 48 U.S.C. § 1421a); see also § 5 (codified at 48 U.”
Lee & Joan Holmes v. Dir. of Revenue & Taxation, Gov't of Guam, 827 F.2d 1243 (9th Cir. 1987). “Guam is a largely self-administered territory of the United States, see 48 U.S.C. § 1421a (1982); and the Northern Marianas are part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, administered by the United States, see H.”
Guam Soc'y of Obstetricians & Gynecologists v. Ada, 776 F. Supp. 1422 (D. Guam 1990). “However, because both the Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit, in their respective Ngiraingas decisions, found on the facts of that case that Guam was not a “person” for purposes of § 1983, neither court confronted the issue of whether Guam, like a state, enjoys sovereign…”
People of Guam v. William John Pinaula, 2022 Guam 3 (Guam 2022). “Superior Court, 2004 Guam 13 ¶ 14 (citing In re Gutierrez, 2002 Guam 1 ¶ 32); see also 48 U.S.C.A. § 1421a (Westlaw through Pub.”
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