Posted on 01/27/2021 1:51:55 PM PST by RandFan
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) introduces a bill aimed at making Washington D.C. a state.
Carper took to Twitter Wednesday to discuss his efforts to “give the over 700,000 D.C. residents a voice, vote and full representation in Congress.”
The so-called ‘Washington D.C. Admissions Act‘ has received support from several members of the Democrat party. However, Republicans are concerned making D.C. a state will place two more Democrats in the Senate.
Democrats would need at least 60 votes in the upper chamber to pass the proposal, but they may only need a simple majority if the filibuster is abolished.
(Excerpt) Read more at oann.com ...
Pretty sure the text of the constitution is clear on this subject:
Washington DC shall not now or ever become a state.
The article defines the district as "...not exceeding ten Miles square..., but doesn't say if Congress can make the area smaller.
Again, this one needs to be adjudicated for clarity before any vote can be had.
Carper, another clown from Delaware. “Guilty” Coons is First Goof , then comes Tommy.
Why stop with DC? Why not LA? Detroit? Chicago? /sarcasm
It already is smaller than 10 square miles. Currently it's a hair over 68 square miles in size. Congress can make it any size they like as long as it isn't larger than 10 square miles.
That amendment only designates who can represent the district, but does not define the district or Congress' powers to change that district. In fact, it muddies the water further by stating: "The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
If we still had a Constitution they would need an amendment.
Did we miss a decimal point somewhere?
Too bad Marion Barry croaked, he would have made the perfect Senator from DC.
If you insist, D.C. is 68.34 square miles.
It establishes 3 electoral votes for the District, that would remain with the District after it is broken off to form the new state. An anomalous result, as a small handful of people - the First Family - would have 3 electoral votes. This would violate one man, one vote that is the basis of Congressional districts and allocation of electoral votes, and is why the dems’ own proposal calls for a constitutional amendment.
Agree.
Residents would be taxed and represented by whichever State they lived in after the division. The DC would just be a portion of each State, designated to be the Capitol.
Could be done like National Parks encompassing more than one State are done.
You can’t make it a State by ‘bill’... it would require a Constitution Amendment.
What is this “Unconstitutional” you speak of?
Here we go.
Here we go.
I had a liberal social studies teacher in high school who would tell us about the importance of DC being a federal district to prevent concentration of power. He also taught that no entity should be allowed to have more power than State and Federal Governments (think Big Tech). He would be considered far right by today’s standards.
Yes, when the Democratic-controlled House passed D.C. statehood in mid-2020, the press and others acted like its chances of surviving a Supreme Court challenge were iffy, and of course that was even before Ginsburg died and got replaced by Amy Coney Barrett.
It failing at the Supreme Court would kill the issue forever sans a constitutional amendment. It almost makes me wonder if it’d be a smart chess move to let it pass if you think the current Court will strike it down, because if you block it, and Dems have a House and Senate majority in the future and some Democratic presidents like Biden or Harris have replaced a couple of the Court’s conservatives...
Statehood vote only requires a simple majority vote in Congress, meaning 51 votes in the Senate. Of course there is the requirement of 60 votes to shut down a Senate filibuster, but that is an internal Senate rule and it only requires 51 votes to abolish the filibuster for statehood.
I think Senate Dems in swing states will be very leery of statehood for DC, but it is a real possibility.
Actually Dems could grant statehood to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and any other territory or locale with a simple majority vote in Congress. Talk about a requirement of a 3/4 majority in Congress or Constitutional Amendments is just wrong, granting statehood is very simple, the major exception being you can’t carve new states out of an existing state (meaning no new states from California for example). Dems could easily separate out a portion of DC from Capitol Hill, the White House etc and grant statehood.
They could return most of DC to Maryland, except for the part where most of the federal buildings are located, which would entitle Maryland to one more representative in Congress, but that would not create two more senators.
Of course that would mean that a very small number of people would get to choose 3 electors. Whether that would be a few dozen people, a few hundred, or a few thousand would depend on how they drew the borders. The result would be the same--90% for the Democrat, 6% for the Republican, 4% for third parties.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.