The District of Columbia has never had voting representation in the United States Congress, but efforts are currently under way to enact a statute that would give the District one vote in the House of Representatives, though not in the Senate. This proposal for a statute to give the District of Columbia voting rights in the House is called the "DC Vote" proposal. Advocates of this approach assert^[1] that it is constitutional, but its constitutionality is disputed. ... Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate Dick Cheney, R, since January 20, 2001 Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R, since January 6, 1999 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political groups (as of January 4, 2005 elections) Democratic Party Republican Party... Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives (or simply the House) is the lower of the two chambers of the United States Congress, the other being the Senate. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral United States Congress, the other being the House of Representatives. ... Voting rights in the District of Columbia differ from those of United States citizens in other parts of the country. ...

Few people dispute that it would be constitutional for Congress to (1) grant full statehood to Washington D.C., or (2) retrocede parts of Washington D.C. back to the State of Maryland, or (3) propose a constitutional amendment granting Washington D.C. a vote in the House of Representatives. However, constitutional law experts do have concerns about the proposed "DC Vote" solution, which would instead give D.C. citizens a vote in Congress by a simple statute like the DC Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2007 (discussed below). D.C. Statehood is the name of a political campaign intended to grant the District of Columbia the full privileges of a U.S. state, including full voting rights in the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate. ... Retrocession, when referring to the District of Columbia, means the return of parts of the District of Columbia to the states from which territory was ceded to create the national capital of the United States. ... Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Area  Ranked 42nd  - Total 12,417 sq mi (32,160 km²)  - Width 90 miles (145 km)  - Length 249 miles (400 km)  - % water 21  - Latitude 37°53N to 39°43N  - Longitude 75°4W to 79°33... The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. ...

Washington D.C. already has a delegate in the House of Representatives. That delegate is currently Eleanor Holmes Norton, but she does not have a vote on the House floor. Under the DC Vote proposal, the District of Columbia would be given a full voting seat in the House of Representatives and Utah would be given an additional House member. These are tables of congressional delegations from the District of Columbia to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. ... Eleanor Holmes Norton U.S. Delegate for the District of Columbia Eleanor Holmes Norton (born June 13, 1937) is the non-voting Delegate from the District of Columbia to the United States House of Representatives (map). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ...

The DC Vote proposal would also have an impact on the Electoral College. Under the DC Vote proposal, the voting power of the District's citizens in presidential elections would remain unchanged at three electoral votes (i.e. 193,843 people per electoral vote), pursuant to the 23rd Amendment. The DC Vote proposal, by awarding Utah an additional House seat, would result in that state gaining an additional electoral vote. An electoral college is a set of electors who are empowered as a deliberative body to elect a candidate to a particular office. ... This is a list of United States of America states by population as of 2005, according to the 2005 Census estimates taken by the United States Census Bureau. ... Amendment XXIII was the twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution which permits the District of Columbia to choose Electors for President and Vice President. ...

"Taxation Without Representation"

The citizens of Washington D.C. are able to vote in presidential elections, but they have no voting representative in Congress. Still, citizens of Washington D.C. are required to pay federal taxes. The notion of "taxation without representation" was a rallying cry during the American Revolution, and it continues to be an argument in favor of a statute granting a vote in the House; however, it is also an argument in favor of the various other solutions to this problem such as statehood, retrocession, and constitutional amendment. No taxation without representation was a rallying cry for advocates of American independence from Great Britain in the eighteenth century. ... John Trumbulls Declaration of Independence, showing the five-man committee in charge of drafting the Declaration in 1776 as it presents its work to the Second Continental Congress The American Revolution was a political movement during the last half of the 18th century that ended British control of the...

The issue of taxation without representation in the District of Columbia is not new. For example, Chief Justice John Marshall addressed it in an 1820 opinion for the Supreme Court, as follows: John Marshall (September 24, 1755 – July 6, 1835) was an American statesman and jurist who more than anyone else shaped American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a center of power. ...

The difference between requiring a continent, with an immense population, to submit to be taxed by a government having no common interest with it, separated from it by a vast ocean, restrained by no principle of apportionment, and associated with it by no common feelings; and permitting the representatives of the American people, under the restrictions of our constitution, to tax a part of the society...which has voluntarily relinquished the right of representation, and has adopted the whole body of Congress for its legitimate government, as is the case with the district, is too obvious not to present itself to the minds of all. Although in theory it might be more congenial to the spirit of our institutions to admit a representative from the district, it may be doubted whether, in fact, its interests would be rendered thereby the more secure; and certainly the constitution does not consider their want of a representative in Congress as exempting it from equal taxation.^[2]

In the years since Marshall wrote those words, the District of Columbia has achieved voting rights in presidential elections, and its delegate in the House of Representatives has also achieved voting rights in committee. Amendment XXIII was the twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution which permits the District of Columbia to choose Electors for President and Vice President. ... A Delegate to Congress is a non-voting member of the United States House of Representatives who is elected from a U.S. territory or from the District of Columbia. ...

Primary Constitutional Provisions at Issue

The second sentence of the U.S. Constitution (after the Preamble) states: The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ... Look up Preamble in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

One of the legal issues now is whether Congress can, by statute, affect how this clause (Article I, Section 2, Clause 1) of the Constitution should be applied. Proponents of a statute giving Washington D.C. a vote in the House say that Congress has the requisite power under Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution: Wikisource has original text related to this article: Article One of the United States Constitution Article One of the United States Constitution states the establishment of the legislative branch of the United States government, known as the Congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Article One of the United States Constitution Article One of the United States Constitution states the establishment of the legislative branch of the United States government, known as the Congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. ...

The Congress shall have Power....To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States....

There are other pertinent constitutional provisions as well. The following words can be found in both Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the original unamended Constitution, as well as in Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment: "Representatives ... shall be apportioned among the several States ... according to their respective Numbers...." Wikisource has original text related to this article: Article One of the United States Constitution Article One of the United States Constitution states the establishment of the legislative branch of the United States government, known as the Congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. ... The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War amendments and it includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. ...

The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is also relevant, since it gives D.C. residents a vote in presidential elections. Likewise, Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 is relevant, since it gives Congress power to grant statehood: Amendment XXIII was the twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution which permits the District of Columbia to choose Electors for President and Vice President. ... Article Four of the United States Constitution relates to the states. ...

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

These seem to be the primary pertinent parts of the Constitution. But, there are other constitutional provisions that may come into play (e.g. the provisions in Article V related to new amendments). Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process whereby the Constitution may be altered. ...

Legal Arguments For and Against

Professor Jonathan Turley testified on September 14, 2006 at House Judiciary Committee Hearings on this subject,^[3] and Turley has also been quoted in the press: Professor Jonathan Turley teaches at The George Washington University Law School where he holds the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law. ...

Jonathan Turley, George Washington University law professor, believes the D.C. portion of the bill is "flagrantly unconstitutional" because the Constitution gives representation to "the people of the several states." It would take a constitutional amendment to give the district unquestioned congressional and Senate representation, he said. Addressing it legislatively means another Congress could always revoke the voting privilege later. "This is the equivalent of having Rosa Parks go to the middle of the bus, the ultimate compromise of principle," he said, referring to the civil rights protest Parks launched when she refused to move to the back of a bus, as required by Jim Crow laws. "Either D.C. residents are entitled to be full citizens or not."^[4]

Other constitutional law experts have reached a different conclusion. For example, Patricia Wald and Kenneth Starr have written: "There is nothing in our Constitution's history or its fundamental principles suggesting that the Framers intended to deny the precious right to vote to those who live in the capital of the great democracy they founded."^[5] Viet Dinh and Adam Charnes have also written on this subject, in favor of a statutorily granted House vote to the District.^[6] Turley calls the analyses of Starr and Dinh, "uncharacteristically liberal interpretations of the text of Article I."^[7] Patricia Wald Patricia McGowan Wald (born 1928) is an American judge. ... Kenneth Winston Starr Kenneth Winston Starr (born July 21, 1946) is an American lawyer and former judge who was appointed to the Office of the Independent Counsel to investigate the death of the deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater land transactions by President Bill Clinton. ... External links Viet D. Dinh Professor of Law; Co-Director, Asian Law & Policy Studies Program at Georgetown Law School Biography of Viet D Dinh by the Institute for Corean-American Studies Testimony of Viet Dinh Professor of Law Georgetown University Law Center before the House Subcommittee on the Constitution America...

Even in the absence of an enfranchising federal statute, some DC citizens have argued that their disenfranchisement is unconstitutional. However, that argument was rejected in the case of Adams v. Clinton,^[8] in which the federal district court stated:

Such evidence as does exist ... indicates a contemporary understanding that residents of the District would not have a vote in the national Congress. At the New York ratifying convention, for example, Thomas Tredwell argued that "[t]he plan of the federal city, sir, departs from every principle of freedom . . . subjecting the inhabitants of that district to the exclusive legislation of Congress, in whose appointment they have no share or vote."

In contrast, there is no direct evidence that any of the framers believed that citizens of the federal district could have a vote in Congress. According to John Fortier, "Only the people of the states may choose members of Congress, and the District of Columbia is not a state. This language is confirmed again and again in the Constitution...."^[9]

Even if a statute could legitimately give the District of Columbia a vote in only one of the two houses of Congress, questions would remain about the legitimacy of apportioning an additional representative for Utah. Senator John Kerry has declined to support the DC Vote proposal: "I would not sign the congressman's bill into law because I think that bill would create all kinds of side issues about reapportionment across the country....Given the current games that have been played with that, I think that would be very dangerous."^[10] Also, the voting power of each citizen of Washington D.C. in presidential elections is currently more than three times that of Texas citizens, according to a list of U.S. states by population. John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts. ... This is a list of United States of America states by population as of 2005, according to the 2005 Census estimates taken by the United States Census Bureau. ...

DC Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2006

The "DC Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2006"^[11] was the bill to give the District of Columbia voting representation in the United States House of Representatives. ... Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives (or simply the House) is the lower of the two chambers of the United States Congress, the other being the Senate. ...

The bill was proposed by Rep. Thomas M. Davis (R) of Virginia, and received support from 24 other co-sponsors. In the 109th Congress, it was introduced on May 3, 2005 and more recently on May 16, 2006. The bill would have given the District of Columbia its first and only representative in the House of Representatives with full voting privileges. In order to mollify Republicans (a District House seat would almost certainly be occupied by a Democrat), the bill would have granted one more seat to Utah (which fell just a few hundred residents short of a fourth House seat in the 2000 census), and the Utah seat would almost certainly go to a Republican. This would have temporarily raised the number of members of the House to 437, from 435, until the 2010 census and the following elections. More recent revisions to the proposal would make the increase to 437 permanent, in order to minimize the impact after the 2010 Census. (Under Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, the number of Representatives may not exceed one per every 30,000 citizens; the House set its current cap at 435 and may raise it to 437 within Constitutional guidelines.) Thomas M. Tom Davis III (born January 5, 1949 in Minot, North Dakota) is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the Eleventh Congressional District of Virginia (map) in Northern Virginia. ... The 109th United States Congress was the meeting of the United Statess federal legislature, composed of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. ... May 3 is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ... 2000 US Census logo The Twenty-Second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13. ... The Twenty-third United States Census will be the next national census in the United States. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Article One of the United States Constitution Article One of the United States Constitution states the establishment of the legislative branch of the United States government, known as the Congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. ...

Despite significant support,^[12] the D.C. Voting Rights Act was not put to a vote in the 109th Congress. However, it has been reported that Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to push for approval of a D.C. voting rights bill during 2007, in the 110th Congress. To facilitate the process, the Utah state legislature is reported to have met in a special session in order to redraw the state's House districts (indicating that the fourth seat will not be an At-Large seat as earlier proposed).^[13][14] The bill would appear to have a greater chance of passing early in the 110th Congress than it had in the previous Congress, due to a change of leadership. The term Speaker is usually the title given to the presiding officer of a countrys lower house of parliament or congress (ie: the House of Commons or House of Representatives). ... Nancy Patricia DAlesandro Pelosi (born March 26, 1940) is the 60th and current Speaker of the House of Representatives, following the 2006 Congressional elections, and is the first woman in U.S. history to hold that office. ... The 110th United States Congress is the present session of the Legislature of the United States federal government. ... Bloc voting (or block voting) refers to a class of voting systems which can be used to elect several representatives from a single multimember constituency. ... The 110th United States Congress is the present session of the Legislature of the United States federal government. ...

The proposal for a D.C. House vote would, to some extent, reflect the original logic that Senators are supposed to represent states (which the District is not), while members of the House represent the people. Under the DC Vote proposal, the District would still be treated differently than a state for purposes of House representation, even if the bill passed. This is because the bill specifically states the number of House members from D.C. cannot exceed one, regardless of population. In the unlikely event that the population of D.C. approaches that of two districts, there may again be calls for a bill to give equal representation.

The DC Vote proposal would also have an impact on the Electoral College. Since D.C. already has an electoral vote for the House member they would have if they were a state, the bill would create only one more electoral vote, which would go to whichever state has the new seat. In 2008 that would be Utah, so in the very likely event Utah goes for the Republican candidate for President, the Republicans would get one electoral vote more than otherwise but the Democrats would have the same as otherwise. One additional electoral vote would also bring the total to 539, making a tie impossible unless an elector abstains or votes for a third party. It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ...

DC Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2007

On January 9, 2007, the DC Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2007 (H.R. 328) was introduced in the House of Representatives.^[15] January 9 is the 9th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD (or CE) era. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ DCVote.org
2. ^ Loughborough v. Blake, 18 U.S. 317 (1820) (also mentioning that "representation is not made the foundation of taxation").
3. ^ House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution,Legislative Hearing on H.R. 5388, the "District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2006
4. ^ Johanna Neuman, Plan would give D.C. a House vote, Los Angeles Times (November 22, 2006)
5. ^ Patricia Wald and Kenneth Starr, Congress Has the Authority to Do Right by D.C., Washington Post (September 17, 2006). Contra Matthew Franck, Hammering to Fit, National Review (September 18, 2006)(rebutting Wald and Starr)
6. ^ Viet Dinh and Adam Charnes, The Authority of Congress to Enact Legislation to Provide the District of Columbia With Voting Representation in the House of Representatives (November 2004)
7. ^ Jonathan Turley, Statement for the Record, Legislative Hearing on H.R. 5388, the "District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2006 (September 14, 2006). It seems to be an uncharacteristic interpretation even for Wald. See Representation for the District of Columbia: Hearings Before the Subcomm. on Civil and Constitutional Rights of the Comm. on the Judiciary, 95th Cong. 131 (1978) (statement of Assistant Attorney General Patricia M. Wald opining that "Article I was in part intended precisely to distinguish the Federal District from the States," and that "we do not believe that the word 'State' as used in Article I can fairly be construed to include the District under any theory of 'nominal statehood'").
8. ^ Adams v. Clinton, 90 F. Supp. 2d 35 (2000) (citations omitted)
9. ^ John Fortier, D.C. Colony, The Hill (May 17, 2006).
10. ^ Spencer S. Hsu, Kerry Skeptical of Bill on D.C. Vote, Washington Post (May 15, 2004)
11. ^ HR 5388, "District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2006," 109th Congress, 2d Session
12. ^ See Plan Would Bring House Vote to D.C., NPR (May 11, 2006)
13. ^ Eleanor Holmes Norton, Press Release: "Pelosi Tells Norton and Fenty She Wants Voting Rights Bill Passed Next Week" (November 30, 2006).
14. ^ See Mary Beth Sheridan and Yolanda Woodlee, D.C. Fights Clock, But Approval of Voting Bill Stalls, Washington Post (December 1, 2006)
15. ^ Mary Beth Sheridan, Bill to Give D.C. a Full Vote Is Revived, Washington Post (January 10, 2007).

See Also

• District of Columbia home rule
• D.C. Statehood
• District of Columbia voting rights
• District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment
• Retrocession (District of Columbia)
• United States Congressional Delegations from the District of Columbia
• Washington, D.C.