Puerto Rico had another statehood referendum this year; assuming statehood wins and Congress admits Puerto Rico to the Union does Puerto Rico actually have to write a new constitution, or does the current one stay in effect despite the status change? Also which classes would it’s 2 senators fall in and would the Governor be able to appoint the initial pair or would they have to be elected?
Some of the answer is factual and some is a combination:
-
Factual: The Senate determines the Senatorial classes to which a new state gets assigned, at the time of admission.
-
Not written law: The last time the matter of the Constitution was seriously discussed in congressional legislation under the leadership of then-Senator Bennet Johnston, back c. 1990, the report language on the bills was that the admitted state would keep the current constitution and could keep the English title styling “Commonwealth of” but the Spanish styling would need to be retranslated to remove ‘Asociado’. All admission proposals since have taken as a premise that the “commonwealth” constitution fulfills the traditional requirement of the territory adopting a home rule constitution that assures a republican form of government and protects contractual obligations.
-
Factual: At least the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act; the Public Law 600 of the 81st Congress; and the Public Law 447 of the 82d Congress would necessarily be repealed or become mooted by the Admission. These are what defines and establishes the relationship between the United States and the Puerto Rico body politic. The Commonwealth Constitution limits itself to internal government and civil rights. BUT since Article 7 Section 3 of the Constitution has a clause that references compliance with those federal laws, that would need to be amended or be considered moot. That could be packaged into the vote to accept the terms of admission but it would be a policy decision to do so.
It would be up to the PR legislature to decide if any other measures to accommodate circumstances of admission need to be added to that constitution by piecemeal amendment or complete rewrite ion convention, or left as simple legislation (for example such as whether the Redictricting Board’s authority includes congressional districts).
From the US Senate FAQ
“For example, there is currently one class with 34 members and two classes with 33 members each. If a new state should be added to the Union, the two senators would be assigned to the two classes with only 33 members, making all three classes even at 34. Then the two new senators draw lots to see which class they join.”
The Constitution of Puerto Rico governs Puerto Rico’s internal governance, but not its relation to the federal level of the United States; that is governed by federal law. So there would not be a need for a new constitution just to adapt to the new status. There are, however, some provisions in the constitution that presuppose that Puerto Rico has a relationship to the US that is different from a state (e.g. the mentioning in Article I section 1 of “the terms of the compact agreed upon between the people of Puerto Rico and the United States of America”), so it would be appropriate though not strictly necessary to amend that.
A cool thing, of course, is that the English translation of Puerto Rico’s official Spanish style (“Estado Libre Asociado”) is “Commonwealth”, so, upon achieving statehood, it would be on par with those few states that style themselves that way. The Spanish version should probably be amended, as “Estado Libre Asociado” implies the kind of association that a normal state would not have.