on the effective date of the Constitution shall become matters pending before the Commonwealth trial court. Civil and criminal matters pending before the High Court of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands on the effective date of the Constitution that involve matters within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth trial court of the United States District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands shall remain within the jurisdiction of the High Court until finally decided.

Section 5: Continuity of Legislative Matters. The terms of office of members of the Northern Mariana Islands Legislature shall expire on the effective date of the Constitution. Bills enacted by the Northern Mariana Islands Legislature but not approved by the Resident Commissioner on the effective date of the Constitution shall be void.

Section 6: Continuity of Corporations and Licenses. Corporations incorporated or qualified to do business in the Northern Mariana Islands on the effective date of the Constitution shall continue to be incorporated or qualified until provided otherwise by law. Licenses in effect in the Northern Mariana Islands on the effective date of the Constitution shall continue in effect until provided otherwise by law except that no license possessed by a land surveyor, ship officer, health professional or a practicing trial assistant may be amended or revoked except for incompetence or unethical conduct.

Section 9: Commonwealth. For the period from the approval of the Constitution by the people of the Northern Mariana Islands to the termination of the Trusteeship Agreement, the term Commonwealth as used in the Constitution and this Schedule to describe a geographical area means the Northern Mariana Islands as defined by article X, section 1005 (b), of the Covenant and otherwise means the government established under this Constitution.

Section 13: Succession. As of the effective date of the Constitution the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands shall succeed to all rights and obligations of the previous Government of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Section 14: Approval of Constitution by the United States. After approval of the Constitution by the people of the Northern Mariana Islands it shall be submitted to the Government of the United States for approval under the provisions of article II, section 202, of the Covenant. If the Constitution is disapproved by the Government of the United States, the Northern Mariana Islands Legislature by the affirmative vote of three-fourths of the members may amend the specific provisions of the Constitution disapproved by the Government of the United States and submit the amended Constitution to the people for approval within sixty days after receipt of the disapproval message from the Government of the United States. Upon approval by the people of the amended Constitution it shall be submitted to the Government of the United States for approval.

Dept. of State File IO/UNP.

On Dec. 27, 1977, the Northern Mariana Board of Elections certified Governorelect Carlos S. Camacho and Resident Representative-elect to the United States Edward D. L. G. Pangelinan as winners of the Dec. 10, 1977, elections. They began serving in their respective offices under the new Constitution of the Northern Mariana Islands on Jan. 9, 1978.

Dept. of State File No. P78 0021-292.

On November 8, 1977, President Carter signed into law S. 2149 (P.L. 95-157; 91 Stat. 1265), an act to create the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands by implementing article IV of the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America. Senator James O. Eastland, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, submitted on

October 6, 1977, a report to accompany S. 2149, which described its purposes as follows:

S. 2149, if enacted, will establish the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands which will be authorized to sit at Saipan and at such other places as may be necessary. The district court will have the Federal jurisdiction of a district court of the United States except that in all causes arising under the Constitution, treaties or laws of the United States it shall have jurisdiction regardless of the amount in controversy. In addition, it will have original jurisdiction in all causes in the Northern Mariana Islands jurisdiction over which is not vested by the Constitution or laws of the Northern Mariana Islands in a court or courts of the Northern Mariana Islands. Finally, the district court will have such appellate jurisdiction as the Constitution or laws of the Northern Mariana Islands may provide.

The Constitution of the Northern Mariana Islands provides for the establishment of a judicial branch of the local government. It calls for the creation by the legislature of a Commonwealth trial court with original jurisdiction over, among others, civil actions where the amount in controversy is $5,000 or less and criminal actions where the fine is $5,000 or less or the imprisonment is for no more than 5 years. It also permits the establishment of an appeals court after the constitution has been in effect for 5 years. In the event no District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands is available under article IV of the covenant, the legislature is authorized to expand the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the Commonwealth trial court and establish an appeals court without reference to the 5-year waiting period.

The legislature of the Northern Mariana Islands will have no authority to act until the Constitution of the Northern Mariana Islands has become effective. After the Constitution becomes effective, it will take the legislature an undetermined amount of time to create the local court authorized by the Constitution and to establish it as a functioning branch of the local government. Transitional provisions of the constitution will enable the current, local courts to hear and determine cases that will be within the limited jurisdiction of the Commonwealth trial court. However, unless the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands is established by S. 2149 in this session of Congress, there will be no court in the Northern Mariana Islands to hear serious criminal and important civil cases, arising under local law. Moreover, there would be no court to hear causes involving Federal questions or Federal crimes, and there would be no appellate tribunal.

The language of S. 2149 follows closely, but not exactly, the corresponding provisions of the Organic Act of Guam (48 U.S.C. 1424 and 1424b) under which Organic Act the District Court of Guam is established as a territorial court of the United States. While the political relationship of the territory of Guam is established by Organic Act the provisions of which are self-executing, the political relationship between the Northern Marianas and the United States

are established in the covenant, the provisions of which are not necessarily self-executing. In this connection the committee notes that article V of the covenant specifies the applicability of certain provisions of the Constitution of the United States and laws of the United States which may be applicable in the Northern Mariana Islands. Among those laws which would be applicable in the Northern Mariana Islands would be the Criminal Justice Act (18 U.S.C. 3006A). Under subsection (K) of 18 U.S.C. 3006A, the Criminal Justice Act is applicable in Guam and under section 502(a)(2) of the covenant would likewise be applicable in the Northern Marianas. This applicability of the Criminal Justice Act is expressly provided in section 4(b) of S. 2149 as amended.

S.R. No. 95-475, Oct. 6, 1977.

Portions of the text of the act read as follows:

Whereas section 401 of the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, approved by section 1 of the joint resolution of March 24, 1976 (Public Law 94-241; 90 Stat. 263), provides that the United States will establish a District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands: Now, therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a) there is hereby established for and within the Northern Mariana Islands a court of record to be known as the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. The Northern Mariana Islands shall constitute a part of the same judicial circuit of the United States as Guam. Terms of court shall be held on Saipan and at such other places and at such times as the court may designate by rule or order.

(b) (1) The President shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint a judge for the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands who shall hold office for the term of eight years and until his successor is chosen and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President for cause. The judge shall receive a salary payable by the United States which shall be at the rate prescribed for judges of the United States district courts.

(3) The President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a United States attorney and United States marshal for the Northern Mariana Islands to whose offices the provisions of chapters 35 and 37 of title 28, respectively, United States Code, shall apply.

(c) The provisions of chapters 43 and 49 of title 28, United States Code, and the rules heretofore or hereafter promulgated and made effective by the Congress or the Supreme Court of the United States pursuant to titles 11, 18, 28, United States Code, shall apply to the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands and appeals therefrom where appropriate, except as otherwise provided in articles IV and V of the covenant provided by the Act of March 24, 1976 (90 Stat. 263). The terms "attorney for the government" and "United States attorney" as used in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (rule 54 (c)) shall, when applicable to cases arising under the laws of the Northern Mariana Islands, include the attorney general of the Northern Mariana Islands or any other person or persons as may be authorized by the laws of the Northern Marianas to act therein.

SEC. 2. (a) The District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands shall have the jurisdiction of a district court of the United States, except that in all causes arising under the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States, it shall have jurisdiction regardless of the sum or value of the matter in controversy.

(b) The district court shall have original jurisdiction in all causes in the Northern Mariana Islands not described in subsection (a) jurisdiction over which is not vested by the Constitution or laws of the Northern Mariana

Islands in a court or courts of the Northern Mariana Islands. In causes brought in the district court solely on the basis of this subsection, the district court shall be considered a court of the Northern Mariana Islands for the purposes of determining the requirements of indictment by grand jury or trial by jury.

SEC. 3. The district court shall have such appellate jurisdiction as the Constitution and laws of the Northern Mariana Islands provide .

SEC. 4. (a) The relations between the courts established by the Constitution or laws of the United States and the courts of the Northern Mariana Islands with respect to appeals, certiorari, removal of causes, the issuance of writs of habeas corpus, and other matters or proceedings shall be governed by the laws of the United States pertaining to the relations between the courts of the United States and the courts of the several States in such matters and proceedings, except as otherwise provided in article IV of the covenant: Provided, That for the first fifteen years following the establishment of an appellate court of the Northern Mariana Islands the United States court of appeals for the judicial circuit which includes the Northern Mariana Islands shall have jurisdiction of appeals from all final decisions of the highest court of the Northern Mariana Islands from which a decision could be had in all cases involving the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States, or any authority exercised thereunder, unless those cases are reviewable in the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands pursuant to section 3 of this Act.

(b) Those portions of title 28 of the United States Code which apply to Guam or the District Court of Guam shall be applicable to the Northern Mariana Islands or the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, respectively, except as otherwise provided in article IV of the covenant. The district court established by this Act shall be a district court as that term is used in section 3006A of title 18, United States Code.

P.L. 95-157, 91 Stat. 1265.

For further information concerning the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, see the 1975 Digest, Ch. 2, § 6, pp. 97-104 and the 1976 Digest, Ch. 2, § 6, pp. 56-60.

On April 11, 1977, in the case of RCA Global, Etc. v. U.S. Dept. of Interior, 432 F. Supp. 791 (1977), the U.S. District Court of Guam, Agana Division, held that that Court lacked jurisdiction over the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), its High Commissioner, the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands (GNMI), and its Resident Commissioner "for acts committed in the Northern Mariana Islands . . . ." Id. 794. The plaintiffs had sought injunctive and declaratory relief against the U.S. Department of the Interior, the TTPI, GNMI, and others, claiming deprivation of property without due process of law for the termination of their lease. to provide communication services between Guam and Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands and for the award of a franchise to another corporation to provide certain communications services to the Northern Marianas. The plaintiffs based their claim on the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and 28 U.S.C. 1331. The latter section grants district courts original jurisdiction in civil actions arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States.

The Court, Cristobal C. Duenas, ruled in favor of the defendants' motion to dismiss on the basis of the Trusteeship Agreement for the Former Japanese Mandated Islands between the United States and the United Nations approved by the Security Council on April 2, 1947, and the United States on July 18, 1947 (TIAS 1665; 61 Stat. 3301; 12 Bevans 951; 8 UNTS 189; entered into force July 18, 1947), an order of the Secretary of the Interior, and various court precedents concerning the TTPI:

The Mariana Islands are administered by the United States pursuant to a Trusteeship Agreement executed by the United States and the Security Council of the United Nations on April 2, 1947, and approved by the United States on July 19 [sic], 1947. Until April 1, 1976, the Northern Mariana Islands were administered by the Secretary of the Interior through the Government of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. However, on April 1, 1976, a new and separate administration was organized to administer the Northern Mariana Islands. This new administration is the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Government of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Resident Commissioner stand in a parallel situation to those of the Government of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and the High Commissioner. See Secretarial Order No. 2989, Department of Interior.

Courts have held that the TTPI is not an agency of the United States nor is the High Commissioner an officer of the United States within the terms of the Administrative Procedure Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. People of Saipan v. U.S. Dept. of Interior, 502 F.2d 90, 9th Circuit, 1974.

The U.S. Court of Claims held in Porter v. U.S., 496 F.2d 583, 204 Ct.Cl. 355 (1974), that the TTPI is not an agency of the United States for contract purposes and that it did not have jurisdiction over an action based upon the alleged breach of contract committed by TTPI. Whatever the Trust Territory is, courts have construed it to be either a foreign country or something other than a Federal agency, Porter supra.

It is therefore the opinion of this Court that it has no jurisdiction over the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, the High Commissioner, the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Resident Commissioner for acts committed in the Northern Mariana Islands....

The Court is not leaving plaintiffs without a forum in which to file their action since Department of Interior Order No. 2918 which set up the Government of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands on December 27, 1968, established the judicial authority of the Trust Territory in the High Court of the TTPI.

*

432 F. Supp. 793–794.

*

For further information concerning People of Saipan v. U.S. Dept. of Interior and Porter v. U.S., see the 1974 Digest, Ch. 2, § 6, pp. 59-63, and Groves v. United States, 533 F.2d 1376 (1976), in the 1976 Digest, Ch. 2, § 6, pp. 60-61.

257-179 O-79-8