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The Third Estate
What Is The Third Estate?
 Everything
What Has It Been Until Now In The Political Order?
Nothing
What Does It Want To Be?
Something

Sometimes Constitutions Are Nuisanceful.

Monday, April 16, 2007
U.S. citizens have a right to political representation.
U.S. citizens live in the District of Columbia.
D.C. has no meaningful representation in the US Congress.
Therefore, U.S. citizens are being deprived of their rights.

As logic, it's pretty good. Unfortunately, the Constitution isn't always terribly concerned with logic. It states quite clearly that the House seats will be allocated among states. D.C. is not a state, and therefore can't have a seat in the House.

I'm all for giving the people who live in D.C. voting rights, by a simple act of Congress isn't going to get you there. I doubt a constitutional amendment would pass (2 more Democratic senators = Republican opposition), so the best option might be to cede most of the district back to Maryland.

After all, the goal is to get political representation, isn't it? Who cares what the method is?
Posted by Arbitrista @ 1:00 PM
4 Comments:
  • Actually, it's called "the District of Columbus." At least that's what a local newscaster said yesterday - and you know they are always right.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:29 PM  
  • Oh for Chrissakes.

    By Blogger Arbitrista, at 7:25 PM  
  • I thought there was a deal in the works to give DC a voting Representative in return for an extra seat for Utah. Whatever happened to that?

    Might not have been the best solution (and it didn't come w/Senators), but it sounded like it was going somewhere.

    By Blogger Paul Curtis, at 4:31 PM  
  • That's the bill that people are pushing for. Unfortunately it got scuttled by white house opposition and an amendment to the bill removing gun control bills in D.C.

    By Blogger Arbitrista, at 5:45 PM  
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