Thanks to Matt Yglesias well-written and thoughtful book on zoning restrictions, “The Rent Is too Damn High,” a lot of liberals are talking these days about scrapping D.C.’s cap on building heights. While I think D.C. shrinking dramatically would be the best thing for the country, I agree that property owners should be allowed to build buildings basically as high as they like, and I welcome liberals like Yglesias seeing how regulation is used to protect incumbents and harm would-be new entrants.

But one backdrop to this debate is D.C. homerule and its lack of a vote in Congress — it’s a congressional statute that caps building height, and D.C. residents have no vote in Congress.