{"id":11335,"date":"2007-09-19T14:20:27","date_gmt":"2007-09-19T21:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/09\/19\/voting-rights-redux.html"},"modified":"2007-09-19T14:20:27","modified_gmt":"2007-09-19T21:20:27","slug":"voting_rights_redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/09\/19\/voting_rights_redux.html","title":{"rendered":"Voting Rights Redux"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Senate GOP minority blocked (through filibuster threat) a move to give District of Columbia residents congressional representation<\/a> through some crazy-ass arrangement splitting the representation with Utah (the idea being that DC will vote liberal\/Dem, Utah conservative\/GOP, so everyone will be happy).<\/p>\n

\n

The measure, which passed the House in April, was devised to be politically neutral, granting one seat to the District, which is predominantly Democratic, and one at-large seat to Utah, which leans Republican.<\/p>\n

Utah fell just 857 people short of getting a fourth House seat after the 2000 census, which state officials argue should have counted the more than 11,000 Mormon missionaries living overseas.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Okay, I have to admit, I’m glad it failed.<\/p>\n

Not because I don’t think DC residents shouldn’t get a vote.  The whole neutral “federal district” idea was based on political realities (and swampland demographics) of the late 18th Century, and is long past due revisiting, out of basic principles of political fairness and representation to a large (more than Wyoming) disenfranchised population (regardless of their political or racial makeup).<\/p>\n

But the Republican opponents of the bill were right: it still strikes me (as it did back in March<\/a>) as pretty plainly unconstitutional.  The Constitution clearly identifies “states” as having voting representatives, not a federal district.  Conjuring up a single voting Representative (but not any Senators) out of nowhere, and jiggering it so that Utah gets one, too (making for 437 Reps), is just bad lawmaking. <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It’s representation by fiat (for both DC and UT), which is wrong, just as easily revoked, or expanded in more goofy ways.<\/li>\n
  2. It’s brokering a deal for votes — “You give us DC, we’ll give you Utah.”  That’s wrong, too, and just as prone to bad precedent.<\/li>\n
  3. It ignores Senatorial representation for DC.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And saying that the law should be passed and let the Supreme Court decide on its constitutionality is bad lawmaking, too (“let’s let the court decide” is an abrogation of constitutional responsibility).<\/p>\n

    The right <\/em>thing to do actually is, as the Republican opposition (albeit probably not with much sincerity) suggested, to amend the Constitution, as it was in the 23rd Amendment to give them a right to vote for President (though still limited in electoral votes).  Then the party that touts spreading democracy around the world can clearly show themselves to be partisan hacks, rather than having legitimate constitutional objections to hide behind. <\/p>\n

    Alternately, change the makeup of DC to move the majority of it — or all but the actual federal building property — into the surrounding states.  Offer subsidies from the federal budget (the parts that go toward administering DC) to the states that take on the burden — hell, double them for a while to make up for the trouble.<\/p>\n

    Or, heck, arrange it so that every representative agrees to hand off their vote on a daily basis to Eleanor Holmes Norton (a wonderfully feisty lady). <\/p>\n

    Do something <\/em>— because proponents of the law are correct, it’s unconscionable to have people in DC paying taxes and dying in wars, but not let them have a voice in the House — and <\/em>Senate.  Just don’t write bad law to do it, because that only lays in trouble for the future.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Senate GOP minority blocked (through filibuster threat) a move to give District of Columbia residents congressional representation through some crazy-ass arrangement splitting the representation with Utah (the idea being…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11179,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/03\/22\/voting_rights.html","url_meta":{"origin":11335,"position":0},"title":"Voting rights","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Mar-07 3:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In principle, I agree with with the move to allow some sort of national representation to the residents of the District of Columbia. \u00a0Historically I understand why that's not the...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32509,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/12\/the-gop-senate-boys-club.html","url_meta":{"origin":11335,"position":1},"title":"The GOP Senate Boys Club","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Feb-13 3:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are the 22 GOP Senators, all men, who voted against this bill:Barrasso, Wyo.; Blunt, Mo.; Boozman, Ark.; Coburn, Okla.; Cornyn, Texas; Cruz, Texas; Enzi, Wyo.; Graham, S.C.; Grassley, Iowa; Hatch, Utah; Inhofe, Okla.; Johanns, Neb.; Johnson, Wis.; Lee, Utah; McConnell, Ky.; Paul, Ky.; Risch, Idaho; Roberts, Kan.; Rubio, Fla.;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48632,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/04\/the-convenient-myth-of-respecting-local-control-of-government.html","url_meta":{"origin":11335,"position":2},"title":"The convenient myth of respecting local control of government","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Dec-14 1:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The way Washington, DC, gets treated by its Congressional overlords is scandalous. Through the power of the purse for the city, Congress can (and does) block any city policy or law it likes, whether enacted by the local government or even a majority of the people.And, of course, DC doesn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130202,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/16\/obama-puts-forward-his-scotus-nomination.html","url_meta":{"origin":11335,"position":3},"title":"Obama puts forward his SCOTUS nomination","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 16-Mar-16 2:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Within the bounds of naming a good candidate to replace Antonin Scalia, Obama had a choice between two tactics:1. Pick a nominee who would appeal to a variety of Democratic interest groups, to make the inevitable GOP reject (or refusal to even consider the nominee) a motivating insult to them.2.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43495,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/12\/more-twists-and-turns-in-utah-gay-marriage-case.html","url_meta":{"origin":11335,"position":4},"title":"More twists and turns in Utah gay marriage case","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 12-Jul-14 12:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It gets difficult figuring out who's staying which decision by whom about what in the Utah case (which affects Colorado, under the 10th Circuit), but the latest is that the Federal Appeals Court has said that an order by a lower court requiring the recognition of 1,300 marriages of same-sex\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13588,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/07\/tit_for_tat.html","url_meta":{"origin":11335,"position":5},"title":"Tit for Tat","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Nov-08 9:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"After Colorado passed Amendment 2 (I think it was) a while back, a lot of folks found the state-approved homophobia so off-putting that Colorado ended up losing a lot of...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}