Episode 207: Puerto Rico: A Part of but Apart from the U.S.

Nine years after Hurricane Maria and ten years after a fiscal control board was imposed on Puerto Rico, the second Trump Administration is now using the island for its own aims while neglecting the needs of the island's citizens. In this episode, Dr. Marisol LeBrón joins Valerie Nannery to dig into Puerto Rico’s colonial status, how it effects the everyday lives of Puerto Ricans, and how it enables the Trump Administration’s reinvigorated Monroe Doctrine.Join the Progressive Legal Movement Today: ACSLaw.orgHost: Valerie Nannery, Senior Director of Policy and ProgramGuest: Dr. Marisol LeBrón, Associate Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, University of California, Santa CruzLink: Policed: A Latinx History of State Violence, by Marisol LeBrónLink: Puerto Rico SyllabusLink: Making Never-Never Land: Race and Law in the Creation of Puerto Rico, by Mónica A. JiménezLink: The U.S. Constitution Meets Democratic Theory:  The Puzzling Cases of Puerto Rico and D.C., by Luis Fuentes-Rohwer & Guy-Uriel CharlesVisit the Podcast Website: Broken Law PodcastEmail the Show: Podcast@ACSLaw.orgFollow ACS on Social Media: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky | LinkedIn | YouTube----------------- Broken Law: About the law, who it serves, and who it doesn’t. -----------------Production House: Flint Stone MediaCopyright of American Constitution Society 2026.