There are actually legitimate legal issues with even trying to make the current district a state.
The biggest two issues. First, that Maryland and Virginia ceded territory explicitly for the use of the district, so there is question as to whether that land could be given to another state, rather than simply returned to the states that gave it up.
Second, the 23rd amendment gave the “district” 3 electors. That was considered a reasonable compromise when there were 500,000 people. But under statehood, there will still be a small “federal district”, which may have a few people at most. Those people will still get 3 electoral votes.
The congress can’t make a law to fix that, because it was an amendment, they have to fix the actual amendment, which requires 3/4ths of the states.
Agreed. I don’t think it’s constitutional. I believe it specifically states that the capital cannot reside in a state.
Actually it would only require that Maryland give consent; Virginia is irrelevant. The land that Virginia ceded to create the district was returned to Virginia prior to the Civil War. This land is the area now occupied by Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia. The land currently comprising DC is entirely land ceded by Maryland.
This points to a historical precedent; the majority of DC could be returned to Maryland. The residential areas could be returned while retaining only Federally owned buildings, monuments, etc. as part of the district.
This would be a wholly appropriate action IMO. The idea of a Federal district is somewhat obsolete today. The main impetus for it was that the national government was seen as being much weaker than the state governments in the years following the Revolution. It was feared that if the Federal capital were located within any state, that state might use its militia and/or other political power to intimidate the Federal Government to act for that state’s benefit. To prevent this, the Federal government was given its own territory and the power to raise forces to defend it if necessary.
The Founders did not anticipate nor intend that this district would grow to become a major city with hundreds of thousands of residents. These people are in fact governed directly by Congress (the city government was authorized by Congress and Congress can still overrule it). These people do not have representation in Congress, so they are truly being taxed without representation. Returning the residential areas to Maryland would solve this issue once and for all. Residents of DC would then, as citizens of Maryland, br represented in Congress, but the Federal government would still not be located within any state.