1/x There are two important points to consider on the question of DC statehood: The first and perhaps most crucial is that we are the only nation on earth that disenfranchises the people of its capital city.

2/x 24 of the world’s 193 countries have federal political systems. The capitals for these 24 states fall along three main categories: 1) capital as city-state; 2) capital within a state or province; and 3) a federal district or territory.

3/x Today, the capitals of 11 of the 24 federated systems essentially accord with the third or D.C. model of a federal district or territory; in every single one, save D.C., residents of the capital enjoy full political franchise and legislative representation.

4/x The second point is that there is no evidence that the drafters of the Constitution intended for the people living in the place where they would locate the seat of federal government should be disenfranchised.

5/x The language of the final Seat of Government Clause that was adopted at the 1787 Constitutional Convention set out the parameters of the Nation’s Capital but intentionally did not set its location.

6/x The debate surrounding the Clause indicates that the Framers intended to insulate the Federal Government from the influence of any one state but nothing in those debates settled the question of representation for residents of the District.

7/x In fact, as far as we can tell, delegates to the Convention discussed and adopted the Seat of Government clause without any recorded debate on its implications for the voting, representation or any other rights of the inhabitants of federal enclaves.

8/x In July 1790, Congress enacted the Residence Act, establishing the location & size of the District. But again, there is no evidence in the Act that the early Congress discussed the consequences the Clause or Act would have on the voting rights of the District’s inhabitants.

9/x The 23rd Amendment, giving DC residents the right to choose electors for President and Vice President, together with the 1973 Home Rule Act, giving the District the right to elect a Mayor & Council, have gone some way in bringing District residents closer to full citizenship.

10/x But it still remains that the District has no voting representative in the Senate or the House, no final control over its taxes, and no dominion even over its laws, which Congress can overrule when it so chooses.

11/x This quasi-colonial relationship is often explained away with claims on the one hand that congressional representation would result in the District having outsized power given its small geographic footprint and small population,

12/x and on the other hand that any disadvantages to not having full legislative representation are more than outweighed by the supposed financial benefits the District receives from its relationship with the federal government.

13/x But it seems an irreconcilable contradiction to maintain both that legislative power is too important to entrust to such a small population as make up the District and not so important that it can’t be bought off with some federal appropriations money.

14/x In the final analysis, if legislative representation is the irreducible core of democratic self-rule, it is a remarkable thing that whether it is afforded to the people of the District should somehow be determined by the symbolic internal lines we’ve drawn on a map.

15/x And no I don’t necessarily think the solution is to “give” DC back to Maryland not only because neither MD nor DC is interested in this forced re-marriage, but also because the rights of DC should not depend on assuaging the fear of republicans that DC would vote democrat

16/x The reality that a population larger than that of Vermont or Wyoming lives as second-class citizens is perhaps less remarkable than the fact that there is no definitive evidence that under the 1787 constitutional order it was ever intended that it be so.

17/17 Lastly -and this is the one truly deep academic point I want to make in this thread - Tom Cotton is an opportunist and a nitwit, whose speech on the floor of the Senate was so full of racist bullshit that Alexander Stephens rose from the grave and joined BLM.

A quick addendum: back in 2004 a radical liberal Senator (now retired) argued the problem could be solved in part by Congress making DC a congressional district, thereby giving it representation in the House. That radical liberal senator? Orrin Hatch. https://harvardjol.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2013/10/287-310_Hatch1.pdf

Typo: Hatch write his essay in 2008, not 2004.