## Facts

- Jesús M. Balzac, editor of *El Baluarte* in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, published articles in April 1918 harshly criticizing the U.S.-appointed governor.
- Puerto Rican authorities filed two criminal libel prosecutions based on those publications in the District Court for Arecibo.
- Under Puerto Rico’s procedural law, jury trials were provided for felonies but not for misdemeanors; criminal libel was treated as a misdemeanor.
- Balzac demanded a jury trial, claiming a Sixth Amendment right, and also asserted First Amendment protection for “fair comment.”
- The trial court denied a jury, conducted bench trials, convicted Balzac in both cases, and imposed short jail sentences and costs.
- The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico affirmed the convictions.
- Balzac sought U.S. Supreme Court review by writ of error, requiring the Court to decide both its appellate jurisdiction and the federal constitutional claims.

## Issues

1. Whether the U.S. Supreme Court had statutory jurisdiction to review the Puerto Rico Supreme Court’s affirmance by writ of error when federal constitutional rights were claimed and denied.
2. Whether the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury applies of its own force to Puerto Rico in local criminal prosecutions.
3. Whether congressional enactments (including the Foraker Act, the Jones Act, and the grant of U.S. citizenship) incorporated Puerto Rico into the United States so as to trigger full application of jury-trial guarantees.

## Decision

- The Court held it had jurisdiction to review the judgment because the statutory scheme for review of Puerto Rico’s highest court was intended to track review of state-court judgments in comparable federal-question categories.
- The Court affirmed Balzac’s convictions.
- The Court held the Sixth Amendment jury-trial guarantee does not apply of its own force in Puerto Rico because Puerto Rico was a U.S. territory not incorporated into the Union.
- The Court concluded Congress had not incorporated Puerto Rico through the Foraker Act, the Jones Act, the extension of U.S. citizenship, or related legislative measures.
- Puerto Rico’s local procedure permitting bench trials for misdemeanors was therefore not invalid on the ground asserted, and Balzac was not constitutionally entitled to a jury trial.

## Legal Principles

- Constitutional provisions governing criminal jury trial do not apply of their own force in a U.S. territory that has not been incorporated into the Union.
- Incorporation of a territory is not presumed; it requires an express congressional declaration or an implication so strong that no other reading is plausible.
- Extension of U.S. citizenship and the application of selected federal statutes to a territory do not, without more, establish incorporation or automatically extend the full set of constitutional jury-trial protections to local courts.
- A federal constitutional challenge may be reviewable even if an assignment of error does not cite the specific statute by name, so long as the record clearly shows the statute’s constitutionality was contested and the claimed error targets that dispute.

## Conclusion

The Court upheld Puerto Rico’s misdemeanor bench-trial regime and affirmed Balzac’s libel convictions, ruling that Puerto Rico remained an unincorporated territory and that the Sixth Amendment jury-trial right did not apply there absent clear congressional incorporation or extension of that specific guarantee.


Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U.S. 298 (1922)