Kutak Rock attorney Dwyer Arce presented at the Virgin Islands Bar Association’s Mid-Year Meeting, May 31 to June 2, on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He took part in a presentation titled “Segovia v. United States: Territorial Rights (& Wrongs)” that discussed litigation pending in the United States Supreme Court regarding the status of civil rights for Americans living in U.S. territories.

Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, Neil Weare of advocacy group Equally American, and St. Croix attorney Pamela Colon also participated. Mr. Arce's portion of the presentation focused on the Insular Cases, a controversial series of Supreme Court decisions from the early 1900s holding that Americans living in U.S. territories lack the same constitutional rights as Americans living in one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia. This issue was recently the subject of a brief Dwyer filed with the Supreme Court on behalf of the Virgin Islands Bar Association.

Mr. Arce also participated in a second presentation titled “New Criminal Procedure & Habeas Corpus Rules” with the Honorable Robert A. Molloy, Judge of the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands. This session addressed the newly adopted procedural rules promulgated by the Supreme Court of Virgin Islands. CLE credit was offered for both presentations.

Mr. Arce has been invited to present several CLEs on the Virgin Islands legal system alongside retired judges and law professors in the past, including:

Virgin Islands Bar Association Annual Meeting & CLE Seminar, December 11, 2015    
Presenter, “Virgin Islands Supreme Court Case Review”     Panelist, “The Development of Common Law in the Virgin Islands”

Virgin Islands Bar Association Mid-Year Meeting & CLE Seminar, May 29, 2015
Panel Chair, “Administrative Law in Virgin Islands Courts”

Virgin Islands Bar Association Annual Meeting & CLE Seminar, December 12, 2014
Panelist, “Federalism in the Courts of the U.S. Virgin Islands”     Panelist, “Virgin Islands Common Law and the Restatements of Law”

Before joining the litigation department in Kutak Rock’s Omaha office, Mr. Arce served as the senior law clerk to the Honorable Maria M. Cabret of the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands. He is an authority on matters of Virgin Islands law and the legal issues arising from the relationship between the federal government and America’s overseas territories.