A bill to give D.C. a voting representative in Congress has stalled for a second time in six months amid debate over its constitutionality.
The District has one non-voting representative in the House of Representatives, a position Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) holds. The District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007 - sponsored by Norton and Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) - would add two new seats to the House. The bill allots one of the new seats to the predominantly Democratic nation's capital and the other to a Republican region in Utah.
Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor who testified at two House Judiciary Committee hearings on the Voting Rights bill, said the law is unconstitutional. Turley said the bill violates Article I, Section II of the Constitution, which states "The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen ... by the People of the several States." Because D.C. is designated a special district in the Constitution, it isn't a state.
Turley, who said he supports a voting representative in Congress for D.C., said lawmakers should focus on refashioning the legislation, given its unlikely chances of becoming a law.
"It is a shame that we have spent years debating this flagrantly unconstitutional measure rather than dealing with legitimate ways to get full representation for the District," Turley said.
Congress should look into making D.C. part of Maryland to solve the problem, Turley said. This strategy, called retrocession, would make D.C. a normal state-supervised city.
This is the first time similar legislation has reached the House floor since 1978. An identical bill was proposed in December, but Republican leadership wouldn't allow it onto the agenda.
After reaching the House floor March 23, an unexpected Republican amendment to ease District gun laws caused Majority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to delay the vote for a later date. The White House also announced last week that President George W. Bush would likely veto the legislation if it reaches his desk.
The District has one non-voting representative in the House of Representatives, a position Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) holds. The District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007 - sponsored by Norton and Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) - would add two new seats to the House. The bill allots one of the new seats to the predominantly Democratic nation's capital and the other to a Republican region in Utah.
Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor who testified at two House Judiciary Committee hearings on the Voting Rights bill, said the law is unconstitutional. Turley said the bill violates Article I, Section II of the Constitution, which states "The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen ... by the People of the several States." Because D.C. is designated a special district in the Constitution, it isn't a state.
Turley, who said he supports a voting representative in Congress for D.C., said lawmakers should focus on refashioning the legislation, given its unlikely chances of becoming a law.
"It is a shame that we have spent years debating this flagrantly unconstitutional measure rather than dealing with legitimate ways to get full representation for the District," Turley said.
Congress should look into making D.C. part of Maryland to solve the problem, Turley said. This strategy, called retrocession, would make D.C. a normal state-supervised city.
This is the first time similar legislation has reached the House floor since 1978. An identical bill was proposed in December, but Republican leadership wouldn't allow it onto the agenda.
After reaching the House floor March 23, an unexpected Republican amendment to ease District gun laws caused Majority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to delay the vote for a later date. The White House also announced last week that President George W. Bush would likely veto the legislation if it reaches his desk.
