Christina D. Ponsa-Kraus

George Welwood Murray Professor of Legal History

Full-time Faculty

Education

Ph.D., Princeton University, 2010
J.D., Yale Law School, 1998
M.Phil., University of Cambridge, 1995
B.A., Princeton University, 1990

Areas of Study

Areas of Specialty

American Legal History
Constitutional Law

Christina D. Ponsa-Kraus joined the faculty of Columbia Law School in 2007. A Puerto Rican raised on the island, she writes about the constitutional history of American expansion and the relationship between the United States and its territories, examining their implications for American federalism, citizenship, and nationhood. Ponsa-Kraus is especially interested in the legal issues surrounding the political status of Puerto Rico and other current U.S. territories (the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa), and has written about these issues in scholarly publications and the mainstream media.

Before joining the Law School, Ponsa-Kraus clerked for Judge José A. Cabranes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and for Justice Stephen G. Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Publications

“Roosters and Resistance,” in Kenneth W. Mack & Jacob Katz Cogan, eds., In Between and Across: Legal History Without Boundaries (2025) (a collection of essays in honor of Henrik Hartog).
“The Insular Cases Run Amok: Against Constitutional Exceptionalism in the Territories,” 131 Yale Law Journal 2449 (2022).
“A Perfectly Empty Gift,” 119 Michigan Law Review 1223 (2021) (review essay on Sam Erman’s Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution, and Empire (2019)).
“Political Wine in a Judicial Bottle: Justice Sotomayor’s Surprising Concurrence in Aurelius,” 130 Yale L.J. Forum (September 21, 2020). Re-published as part of a collection in honor of Judge Juan R. Torruella.
“Beholding Law: Amadeo and the Argentine Constitution,” introduction (with Erin F. Delaney) to the online re-publication of Santos P. Amadeo, Argentine Constitutional Law ([1943] 2019), as part of the series Obras Históricas de Autores Puertorriqueños published by La Academia Puertorriqueña de Jurisprudencia y Legislación.
“Fantasy Island,” Yale Journal of International Law Online (May 19, 2018) (with Erin F. Delaney). Response to Joseph Blocher & Mitu Gulati, Puerto Rico and the Right to Accession, 43 Yale Journal of International Law (2018). Published as part of a symposium.
“The Crisis of 1909, and the Other Crisis of 1909,” Revista de la Academia Puertorriqueña de Legislación y Jurisprudencia (online journal), Vol. XIII (2016).
“When Statehood Was Autonomy,” in Gerald L. Neuman & Tomiko Brown-Nagin, eds., Reconsidering the Insular Cases: The Past and Future of the American Empire (Harvard University Press, 2015).
“Los Casos Insulares: Doctrina Desanexionista,” 78:3 Revista Jurídica Universidad de Puerto Rico 661 (2009) (with Adriel Cepeda Derieux).
“A Convenient Constitution? Extraterritoriality after Boumediene,” 109:5 Columbia Law Review 973 (2009).
“They Say I Am Not an American…: The Non-Citizen National and the Law of American Empire,” 48:4 Virginia Journal of International Law 659 (2008).
“That Guy Thinks He’s Roscoe Pound,” Sesquicentennial Essays of the Faculty of Columbia Law School (2008).
“None of the Above Means More of the Same: Why Solving Puerto Rico’s Status Problem Matters,” in Frances Negrón Muntaner, ed., None of the Above: Puerto Ricans in the Global Era (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
“Two Puerto Rican Senators Stay Home,” 116 Yale L.J. Pocket Part 408 (2007).
“The Edges of Empire and the Limits of Sovereignty: American Guano Islands,” in Mary Dudziak and Leti Volpp, eds., Legal Borderlands: Law and the Construction of American Borders, 57:3 American Quarterly 779 (Special Issue, 2005).
“Untied States: American Expansion and Territorial Deannexation,” 72:3 University of Chicago Law Review 797 (2005).
Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Rico, American Expansion, and the Constitution (Duke University Press, 2001) (co-edited with Burke Marshall).
“The Case for Puerto Rican Decolonization,” Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Summer 2001), 433-452 & No. 4 (Fall 2001), Errata.
“Puerto Rico,” 23 Yale Journal of International Law 561 (1998) (reviewing José Trías Monge’s Puerto Rico: The Trials of the Oldest Colony in the World (1997)).

Op-Eds and Blogs

"Enumerationism and My Discontent," Balkinization, July 9, 2025.
“Mitos sobre la descolonización de Puerto Rico,” El Nuevo Día, October 25, 2024.
“The Catch-22 of Puerto Rico’s 2024 Status Referendum,” Time, October 11, 2024.
“With one vote, Congress can give Puerto Ricans the right to determine their own future,” Miami Herald, September 22, 2022 (with Rafael Cox Alomar).
“Two bills aim to fix Puerto Rico’s status. Here’s how Congress can end the deadlock,” Miami Herald, August 2, 2021 (with Rafael Cox Alomar).
“The Perils of Politics in the Scholarly Debate on Puerto Rico’s Constitutional Status,” IACL-AIDC Blog, May 25, 2021.
“The Battle Over Puerto Rico’s Future,” Balkinization, April 21, 2021. Cross-posted on Verfassungsblog. Published in Spanish as “La batalla por el futuro de Puerto Rico” in El Nuevo Día, April 29, 2021, (translation by Ponsa-Kraus) (condensed version for the May 1 print edition here). Cross-posted by La Academia Puertorriqueña de Jurisprudencia y Legislación.
“Make Puerto Rico A State Now,” The New York Times, November 4, 2020.
“Are American Samoans American?” The New York Times, June 8, 2016, p.A21.
“Promises, Promises,” The Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2008, p.A8.
“Puerto Rico Chooses,” Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 11, 1998, p.11.

Selected Presentations, Appearances, and Public Statements

"History and the Courts," Hess Week April 2025 Events in Honor of Melissa Murray, Ethyl Wolfe Institute for the Humanities, Brooklyn College.
“Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute Policy Briefing: Puerto Rico” (July 31, 2024).
“Puerto Rico’s Political Possibilities Post-Fiona” (September 23, 2022). Conversation on NPR’s The Takeaway with Prof. Charles Venator-Santiago and host Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry.
“Why Statehood Makes Sense for Puerto Rico” (May 25, 2022). Conversation about the history and future of Puerto Rico’s status on You Decide podcast with Errol Louis.
“What the Supreme Court’s Decision on Puerto Rico Could Open the Door to” (April 25, 2022). Conversation about United States v. Vaello-Madero (2022) on Background Briefing with Ian Masters.
“Puerto Rican Rights at SCOTUS and Throughout History” (November 11, 2021). National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen discusses United States v. Vaello Madero with Professor Ponsa-Kraus and Neil Weare, President and Founder of Equally American, on We the People podcast.
Compromise Proposal on Puerto Rico Status Legislation (October 2021). Co-authored with Rafael Cox Alomar. Explained in this OpEd in the Miami Herald. Discussed on a panel at the University of Puerto Rico on October 27, 2021 (in Spanish). Coverage by Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia here.
Interview with Jean Peña Payano on podcast “Desde el Podio” (August 20, 2021) (in Spanish). Peña Payano interviews Ponsa-Kraus on Puerto Rican statehood.
Interview with Carmen Jovet on Puerto Rican news program “Punto Final” (June 17, 2021) (in Spanish). Jovet interviews Ponsa-Kraus about her testimony before the House Committee on Natural Resources the previous day (see below). The interview begins at approximately 6 minutes 45 seconds and follows Jovet’s interview with Professor Rafael Cox Alomar, who also testified at the hearing.
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Natural Resources, Second Hearing on Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act of 2021 and Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2021 (June 16, 2021), Testimony (original version here and revised version here). A video of the hearing is available here.
Guam Legislature, Hearing on Resolution 56-36, supporting U.S. House Resolution 279, denouncing the Insular Cases of 1901, Testimony (May 5, 2021 Guam Time).
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Natural Resources, Hearing on Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act of 2021 and Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2021 (April 14, 2021), Testimony. A video of the hearing is available here. Prof. Ponsa-Kraus’s submissions for the record are compiled and available here.
Letter from Legal and Constitutional Scholars Supporting Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2021 and Opposing Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2021 (April 12, 2021). A response to the letter by constitutional law professors in Puerto Rico is available here. Professor Ponsa-Kraus’s reply is available here. The entire exchange is available here.
“‘Self-Determination’ and Puerto Rican Statehood.” Presentation as part of panel entitled “The First 30 Days Forward: The Biden-Harris Administration’s Present and Potential Impact on U.S. Institutions, Law & Policy,” Columbia Law School (via Zoom) (February 10, 2021). In this 10-minute presentation, Prof. Ponsa-Kraus answers two questions: “Are the statehood efforts of Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., now ripe for consideration under a Biden-Harris Administration? Why or why not? How should students think about the intersection of statehood and voting rights?”
“Political Crisis and Puerto Rico’s Status Question,” Puerto Rico Diaspora Summit 2019, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College (September 27, 2019).
News report on Prof. Ponsa-Kraus’s lecture “Being Puerto Rican: Life in the Shadow of Empire’s Law,” delivered at Columbia Law School (March 23, 2016).
“History, Perspectives, and Lessons,” Reconsidering the Insular Cases Conference, Harvard Law School (March 14, 2014).
White House Interagency Task Force on Puerto Rico, Discussion on Status, Testimony (May 25, 2010).

Amicus Briefs

Brief of Scholars of Constitutional Law and Legal History As Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioners, Fitisemanu v. United States, No. 21-1394 (arguing that the Insular Cases do not govern the question whether the Citizenship Clause applies of the Fourteenth Amendment applies in the U.S. territory of American Samoa and that the Court should grant certiorari and overrule the Insular Cases).
Brief for Scholars of Constitutional Law and Legal History as Amici Curiae Supporting Appellees With Respect To the Insular Cases, Fitisemanu v. United States, Nos. 20-4017 & 20-4019, United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (submitted on May 12, 2020) (arguing that the Insular Cases do not govern the question whether the Citizenship Clause applies of the Fourteenth Amendment applies in the U.S. territory of American Samoa).
Brief of Amici Curiae Scholars of Constitutional Law and Legal History Supporting the First Circuit’s Ruling on the Appointments Clause Issue, Financial Oversight and Management Board v. Aurelius, LLC, Nos. 18-1334, -1475, -1496, -1514, -1521, Supreme Court of the United States (submitted on August 29, 2019) (on whether the appointment of the members of the FOMB violated the Appointments Clause).
Brief of Amici Curiae Scholars of Constitutional Law and Legal History in Support of Neither Party, Segovia v. Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, No.16-4240 (submitted on April 19, 2017) (challenging denial of absentee ballots to former residents of Illinois who have relocated to U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands).
Brief of Amici Curiae Christina Duffy Ponsa and Sam Erman in Support of Respondents, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle, Supreme Court of the United States, No. 15-108 (submitted on December 22, 2015) (on whether Puerto Rico is a separate sovereign for double jeopardy purposes).

Christina D. Ponsa-Kraus

Publications

Op-Eds and Blogs

Selected Presentations, Appearances, and Public Statements

Amicus Briefs

Related News and Stories

Faculty in the Media: Recent Essays and Op-Eds

Enumeration and My Discontent

Foreign in a Domestic Sense