Washington, D.C., has suffered one of the worst coronavirus case rates in the nation. The capital’s feckless leadership let protesters run rampant, destroying businesses. So naturally, Democrats wish to reward Washington with yet another vote pushing for statehood.
US House will vote on Washington, DC, statehood next week.
Pelosi: “We prepare to fight a historic injustice by passing legislation to finally grant the District of Columbia statehood …we will continue our work to protect every Americans’ right to be heard at the ballot box.” pic.twitter.com/DB8fa8AK27
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 16, 2020
Such a campaign isn’t just antithetical to the Founding Fathers’ view that the nation’s capital must remain small and distinct from the rest of the states, but it’s also completely meaningless — at least as a matter of constitutional law.
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution contains the district clause, which clearly grants Congress the power “to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States.”
The Supreme Court has maintained that a municipality can preside over Washington so long as it doesn’t interfere with Congress’s exclusive powers, but it has expressly forbidden statehood so long as current law exists. And because the provision against statehood is in the Constitution and not regular federal law, there’s nothing Congress can do about that on its own.
For starters, Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution says that Congress can’t unilaterally admit any state into the union that’s already “within the Jurisdiction of any other State.” That already presents likely legal complications preventing even a successfully passed bill from actually going into effect.
Furthermore, to overcome the district clause that definitely prohibits D.C. statehood would require a constitutional amendment. That would require an amendment passed by either Congress or a national constitutional convention then ratified by either the legislatures of three-fourths of the states or state ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states.
Fat chance of that happening. Outside of the swamp, D.C. statehood is wildly unpopular, with nearly two-thirds of people polled by Gallup opposing. The majority of both liberals and conservatives oppose it, and national opposition to the prospect has only consolidated over the decades.
