<P> Guam and Puerto Rico, both gained by the United States in the Spanish--American War, are considered part of the "United States" for purposes of law; on the other hand, the United States Supreme Court declared in a series of opinions known as the Insular Cases that the Constitution extended ex proprio vigore to the territories . However, the Court in these cases also established the doctrine of territorial incorporation . Under the same, the Constitution only applied fully in incorporated territories such as Alaska and Hawaii, whereas it only applied partially in the new unincorporated territories of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines . </P> <P> In a 2016 Supreme Court ruling called Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle, the court ruled that territories don't have their own sovereignty . </P> <P> Since 1959, there has been a single incorporated territory: Palmyra Atoll (formerly part of the Hawaii Territory, but excluded from the Hawaii Admission Act). The following uninhabited territories, all of which are unorganized, form the United States Minor Outlying Islands (UM): </P> <Ul> <Li> Baker Island </Li> <Li> Howland Island </Li> <Li> Jarvis Island </Li> <Li> Johnston Atoll </Li> <Li> Kingman Reef </Li> <Li> Midway Atoll (administered as the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge; small number of contractors present) </Li> <Li> Navassa Island (disputed with Haiti) </Li> <Li> Palmyra Atoll (small number of people present) </Li> <Li> Wake Island (small number of contractors present; disputed with Marshall Islands) </Li> </Ul>

Governmental power in the united states is distributed between national and levels of government