The Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U.S. Virgin Islands proposed a

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

for the

United States Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory ...

in May 2009. The Virgin Islands government is organized under the provisions of the Revised Organic Act of 1954 and the

Treaty of the Danish West Indies The Treaty of the Danish West Indies, officially the Convention between the United States and Denmark for cession of the Danish West Indies, was a 1916 treaty transferring sovereignty of the Virgin Islands in the Danish West Indies from Den ...

of 1916. On October 21, 1976, Congress passed (subsequently amended by Pub. L. 96-597, title V, Sec. 501, Dec. 24, 1980) authorizing the people of the United States Virgin Islands to organize a government pursuant to a constitution, which would be automatically approved if Congress did not act within 60 days. Constitutional conventions were elected, but did not adopt a constitution, in 1964, 1971, 1977, and 1980. An Act was passed by the 25th

Legislature of the Virgin Islands The Legislature of the Virgin Islands is the territorial legislature of the United States Virgin Islands. The legislative branch of the unincorporated U.S. territory is unicameral, with a single house consisting of 15 senators, elected to two- ...

calling for a fifth constitutional convention, and 30 delegates to the convention were elected in the 2007 United States Virgin Islands Constitutional Convention election. The convention passed a proposed constitution in May 2009,Statement by Gerard Luz Amwur James II
President of the Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U.S. Virgin Islands, to the

United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization The United Nations Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, or the Special Committee on Decolonization (C-24), is a committee of ...

, June 22, 2010 and President of the Fifth Constitutional Convention

Gerard Luz James Gerard Luz Amwur James II (born March 18, 1953) is an American Virgin Islander politician, funeral director, and businessman. James served as the Lieutenant Governor of the United States Virgin Islands from 1999 until 2003 and was the president ...

submitted it to Virgin Islands Governor John P. de Jongh on June 1, 2009. According to James, the proposed constitution would not affect the Virgin Islands' status as a Non-Self-Governing Territory as determined by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

, but would only organize existing internal governance arrangements. After initially declining to forward the proposal to the "administering power", the

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

, Governor de Jongh sent the draft to President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

in December 2009. The proposed constitution was submitted by the President to the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

on March 1, 2010. According to , Congress could approve, amend, or modify the constitution by joint resolution, or the constitution would be automatically approved if Congress did not act within 60 days. Instead, Congress passed () which provided that Congress would send the Constitution back to the convention and urge the convention to reconvene. The objections of de Jongh, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Congress included the failure of the proposed constitution to expressly recognize United States sovereignty; its granting of legal advantages to people of local ancestry or birth; and imprecise wording of parts of the bill of rights. On September 11, 2012, Governor de Jongh signed Act No. 7386 convening the Fifth Revision Convention. It was to convene within the month of October 2012 and was to be composed of the 30 delegates of the Fifth Constitutional Convention and a legal team. It convened but failed to make a decision by the October 31 deadline.

References

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External links

List of articles written by Megan Poinskia
a journalist that covered extensively the convention for

The Virgin Islands Daily News The ''Virgin Islands Daily News'' is a daily newspaper in the United States Virgin Islands headquartered on the island of Saint Thomas. In 1995 the newspaper became one of the smallest ever to win journalism's most prestigious award, the Pulit ...

. Politics of the United States Virgin Islands +Virgin Islands 2009 in the United States Virgin Islands