David A. Wheeler's Blog

Fri, 22 Oct 2004

Supreme Court Could Make Washington, DC Part of Maryland for Congressional Elections

As I’ve noted before, due to strange quirks of history, residents of the U.S. capital — Washington, DC — cannot vote in U.S. Congressional elections. I’m a big believer in democracy, and this is a quirk that needs fixing. I earlier wrote Treat Washington, DC as Part of Maryland for Congressional Elections. to describe what I think is a solution that deserves more consideration. I’ve now added to that essay an important way that result could be obtained: the courts. This situation wasn’t established by the U.S. Constitution (as commonly thought), but by a later 1801 law; before that time, residents of the current DC land voted as Marylandians. So, DC residents could bring a suit to the courts, claiming that the disenfranchisement is unconstitutional. If the U.S. Supreme Court agrees, then voila — DC residents can suddenly vote in Congressional elections, as they did before 1801.

See my essay for more details.

path: /misc | Current Weblog | permanent link to this entry