Colonialism’s Shadow Hangs Over First Circuit Puerto Rico Trips

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO—Judges on the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit last month traded their 13-story home base in Boston’s Seaport district for a Spanish style courthouse sandwiched between palm trees in the Caribbean.

San Juan in winter sounds like a nice getaway, and the judges hear that a lot. But the change of venue is tricky, the schedule is packed, and some Puerto Ricans—who can’t vote in presidential elections or access many government programs—remain torn over the US’s second-highest court system handling cases on the island.

The twice-yearly First Circuit sittings in San Juan, which have ...