[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 7, 2001)] [House] [Pages H208-H209] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] GUAM JUDICIAL EMPOWERMENT ACT The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, today I am reintroducing the Guam Judicial Empowerment Act, a bill which seeks to mend the Organic Act of Guam for the purposes of clarifying the local judicial structure. This legislation will correct the defect in the Guam Organic Act relative to the judicial branch of the government of Guam and seeks to correct a longstanding judicial anomaly. It would establish the local court system, including the Supreme Court of Guam, as a coequal branch of the government of Guam within the framework of the Guam Organic Act and place the judiciary on equal footing with Guam's legislative and executive branches of government. Currently, the Organic Act of Guam, which functions as a de facto constitution for Guam, clearly delineates the inherent powers of the legislative and executive branches of the Government of Guam, but it does not do so for the judicial branches. This legislation seeks to bring the courts in Guam to a level that is comparable and similar to other states and territories and seeks to establish a framework that is equal to the powers of the other branches. [[Page H209]] Mr. Speaker, this legislation completes the process of establishing a clearly Republican form of government in Guam, one in which the three branches of government are coequal. The Organic Act of 1950 created the original Government of Guam. At that time, it had a legislature which was elected by the people, but it did not have an independent judiciary, it was nexused into the Federal judiciary and it had an appointed governor. {time} 1115 Since that time, there has been a number of incremental improvements in this relationship, an elected governor in 1968, an elected representative in Congress in 1972, and Congress allowed for the establishment of a Guam Supreme Court in the 1980s; but that Guam Supreme Court and that judicial branch subjected it to the local legislation. At first, it looked like a good blow for local government; but it meant that the judicial branch in Guam was not organized based on a constitution, as in Guam's case the Organic Act, but based on local legislation. Well, the possibilities for mischief were enormous as the judicial branch remained at the behest and the wiles of a local legislature and the executive branch. This anomalous, atypical system must be rectified; and my legislation seeks exactly to do that. The architects of the U.S. Constitution had the foresight to establish an institutional mechanism that would protect this great Nation from an autocratic regime, and that is that it establishes three coequal branches of government. This doctrine of separation of powers is the fundamental principle of this great Nation and has since laid the foundation for the democratic system of government that has been established in subsequent States and territories. The passage of this legislation would solidify the structure of Guam's judiciary and ensure a status as a separate and equal branch of government. I certainly hope that Members of this body will support this legislation. ____________________