Guam, which is a US territory, has filed an appeal against a court decision which denied the right of Guam to hold a vote on independence based on the principal of self-determination.
The court ruled that such a vote would violate the constitution as it is ‘race-based’ and contradicts the Fifteenth Amendment.
Guam specified that those eligible to vote be native inhabitants of Guam, which is defined as people who became U.S. citizens on Guam by the Organic Act, or their descendants. The Fifteenth amendment specifies that federal governments cannot deny citizens a right to vote based on “race, colour, or previous condition of servitude”.
In their appeal, Guam officials specify that the application of the Fifteenth Amendment;
“has no basis in history and destroys Guam's ability to ask its native inhabitants about important political-status issues."
Read more at Pacific Daily News.