Republican members of the U.S. House panel with jurisdiction over D.C. voting rights on Wednesday made clear their constitutional concerns over legislation granting the District representation.
During a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, constitutional scholars were peppered with questions on the legality of a bill that would increase the House by two seats, with one going to the District and the other to Utah. A vote in the committee is scheduled for today.
“We are the only democracy in the world where citizens living in the capital city are denied representation in their legislature,” said U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., the committee chair. “And we’re here to see if this can be changed.”
Despite the bill’s bipartisan support — D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, and Virginia Republican Tom Davis co-introduced it — the measure has drawn opposition from GOP leaders, generally on constitutional grounds. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, said the legislation as written “exceeds constitutional bounds.”
“Since D.C. is not a state, it cannot have a voting member of the House,” Smith said. “That’s not even a tough law school question.”
Republicans also chastised a stipulation that Utah’s new seat be at-large. The provision was added to protect the state’s one Democratic congressman from being gerrymandered out of his district, but Republicans say the section violates the legal precedent of “one man, one vote.”
Voting rights activists expected a fight in judiciary. But they anticipate the bill will move forward to the House floor.
“We’ve got momentum, without any question,” said Mayor Adrian Fenty, who attended the hearing but did not testify.
The hearing featured dueling constitutional scholars. Georgetown University law professor Viet Dinh argued Congress has “ample constitutional authority” to give the District a vote. But George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley described the bill as “the most premeditated unconstitutional act by Congress in decades.”
