Political status of Puerto Elanor

The political status of Puerto Elanor has been hotly debated and ended up in a court case.

Court case

When the USA was formed in 2000, a minor delegate in the Constitution Writing Squad made an objection to the Olde Antarctican conduct that purchased Puerto Elanor because of its usage and legal ownership under the City of Polaris. This was largely unnoticed until 2008, when Tammyshroom Jones and Melvin Turtleheimer joined forces to press charges against Polaris for "acting like a country when it is nothing more than a creature of statute".

• While Melvin and Tammy argued for the side of the United States of Antarctica, a slick Polarian Japalandese anime immigrant penguin defended Polaris. When the case was settled, they named the strip connecting the two parts of the city after him. His name was Wurl Two2.

The challenges

The legal questions that the judges in this fiasco were to consider were as follows:

1. Can a city colonize an island, despite its sovereignty existing solely because a government says so?
2. Can a city take over an island that far from it?
   1. If so, did the City of Polaris annex Puerto Elanor pursuant to how a city annexes things?
3. Is Puerto Elanor on the same administrative division tier as Polaris?
   1. If so, why and how?
   2. If not, did Polaris properly annex and incorporate it through any of the following: their City Charter, consent of applicable courts or the South Pole Council, or by some other proper/established means?
4. Is Puerto Elanor in the jurisdiction of the United States of Antarctica, or Castilla?
   1. If USA, how so?
   2. If Castillia, was international law observed correctly? Did Castillia permit this?

The cases

The cases began in the federal courts, because previous krytocric precedents deemed Polaris answerable not to Eastshield, but the nation of the USA, because it was incorporated by the King himself, as opposed to by any one colony. The USA is the successor state to Colonial Antarctica, and, Constitutionally speaking, King-level actions became the federal government's burden, and colony-level actions were inherited by the states.

Almost immediately, the case was stalled when Polarian lawyers were caught bribing federal judges to side with them.

Judge Xavier, knowing that the case would never be settled normally, issued a writ of certiorari to bring the case to him, so that he could permanently solve it without argument and wasted time. Like all Chief Justice certiorari, this was an ex parte case, meaning that no lawyers on either side appeared or argued their case.

Judge Xavier's rulings

Judge Xavier answered the legal questions as follows:

1. No. A city is not a sovereign realm and can not excercise forced annexation like a nation or a state can. Cities exist at the whim and pleasure of the governments above it, while states and nations are entrenched in constitutions.
2. Yes. A city can annex any land- even overseas -if, and only if, that land is already under the jurisdiction of the USA, even if it is in different states.
   1. No. The City did not initially obey municipal annexation doctrine. However, when the case began, Polaris immediately fixed all applicable errors and did indeed bring Puerto Elanor into proper standing with the law.
3. Yes.
   1. The part of the Miverva Islands that were annexed by Polaris in 1977 were, at the time, owned by what would become the USA. (At the time, this was Olde Antarctica.)
4. Yes. In 1977, the annexed portion that is now Puerto Elanor was owned by Olde Antarctica.
   1. The USA is the successor state to Olde Antarctica, Colonial Antarctica, and every nation before that.
   2. Yes. Castillia fully consented to this act.

The good Judge also made these following points to clarify the legality:

• Polaris brought Puerto Elanor in line with municipal annexation law as soon as it also annexed the distance from the island to the city.
• The allegations of gerrymeandering are correct. However, the legality of gerrymeandering was touched on in the case AJEL v. State. Judge Xavier does not believe in screwing with previous courts, so he let that decision stand. There is nothing wrong with gerrymeandering.
• Puerto Elanor is part of the City of Polaris, and vice versa. They are one. As such, the Mayor of Polaris must, ex officio, be the "mayor" or leader of Puerto Elanor, as well.
• Puerto Elanor may have its own government subordinate to Polaris, but not independent of the same. Further, Puerto Elanor must submit to the BORNE, HOLINESS, and other commands from the mainland as if they were one, because they are one.
• The legality of the gambling in Puerto Elanor is not, and will not, be ruled on in this case. That is a question for another day.
• Polaris is not overstepping its bounds as a municipality in annexing Puerto Elanor, provided it obeys these guidelines and the precedents and laws governing how cities may annex land.

Who won?

Polaris won this case... BIG TIME.

Xavier's opinion

“	The annexation of Puerto Elanor by the City of Polaris was not a violation of sovereignty, or a defiance of any legislative or judicial law or precedent, provided that (1) the City treats Puerto Elanor as a part of the city, that (2) the the city limits are connected, and (3) Puerto Elanor be annexed per municipal annexation, not sovereign annexation, that (4) Puerto Elanor be subject to the same federal mandates as Polaris, and that (5) commerce, leisure, and all forms of travel passing through the oceanic "city limits" of Polaris be completely unhindered by the City.	”
	— Judge Xavier, Ex parte Elanor