Posted on 03/14/2009 3:34:24 AM PDT by Scanian
President Barack Obama has the wind in his sails. After a decisive victory, he has launched the greatest expansion of federal government in American history. Republicans, still licking their wounds from November's election, have yet to form an effective political opposition. For now, that leaves the Constitution's structural limits on governmental power as the only potent brake on government further reshaping our society.
Accordingly, Republicans should be the first to insist that these requirements be strictly observed. Unfortunately, a number of congressional Republicans already are abandoning constitutional fidelity by supporting the D.C. Voting Rights Act. The fact that the Act's objective could easily be secured in a constitutionally proper manner makes their support all the worse.
The D.C. Voting Rights Act, which passed by a 61-37 vote in the Senate and is now being considered in the House of Representatives, would grant Washington, D.C., voting representation in that body. The District's current delegate to Congress would be transformed into an actual voting member of the House. In addition, and as an obvious sop to Republican sensibilities, the state of Utah would be awarded an additional House seat. (This would have happened in any case as a projected result of the reapportionment process triggered by the 2010 census.)
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The District of Columbia is not a state. Therefore, it cannot have citizens - only temporary residents. Those temporary residents are citizens of the state in which they resided prior to coming to the District of Columbia. Therefore, they should vote in those states - by absentee ballot if necessary.
Not to worry - zero swore he'd preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. He'll veto it, I'm sure. /S
It has citizens, just not statehood.
Well, I can see the point that many people living there were born and raised there, thus do not have a home state elsewhere.
They can accomplish this by giving back the parts of DC with people living there to Maryland. Then they don’t have to add a House seat with a DC rep.
And adding the House seat is just the camel nose in the tent, because eventually they would want to give DC two senators, as if it were a state.
Hope they nip this in the bud.
“The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
“No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.”
14th Amendment:
“Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State ....”
Is it really that hard to understand?
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