Senior Frank Broomell, a Hatchet columnist, argues that there is still much work left to be done to give D.C. equal voting rights.
“The nearly 592,000 District of Columbia residents now have their best shot yet at gaining true representation in the House of Representatives. But this still falls short of America’s responsibility to the people of its capital.”
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DC is typically not treated as a state in Supreme Court cases, and constitutionally it is pretty explicity that only states get Representation. 5th Amendment is shaky ground to stand on also since other American Citizens (Peurto Ricans, Guam) don’t get a vote in House of Rep or Sen. It’s a very weak legal argument for giving DC a vote in Congress.
This entire argument as seen in the hatchet revolves around the concept of how DC deserves the right to vote and how congress should act to give the district representation. What it fails to even mention is the minor flaw which has kept DC from having representation for over 200 years, the Constitution.
Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution speaks to how each state gets representatives and senators. Seeing as the district is not considered a state beyond the purposes of federal court jurisdiction it does not qualify for such representation on its own.
While I personally believe it makes sense that the residents of the district should be represented in congress, in order to do so requires more than a majority support from congress with presidential approval. It requires a constitutional amendment. Such a problem was solved previously with the 23rd Amendment which granted DC the right to vote in presidential elections. If DC was an actual state such an amendment would not be required.
Therefore due to the legal president of the 23rd Amendment and just general literacy of the Constitution, should congress pass a resolution giving DC the right to vote, then before the next election it will be removed from the rule-books by the nine gavel-toting members of the Supreme Court.