Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 gives Congress the right to “exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District”.
You might think that means they can just vote to give DC a seat in the House of Representatives, except that Article 1, Section 2 clearly describes that 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.”
DC is not a state, and it does not have a State Legislature. Therefore it has no qualifications requisite for the Electors. It cannot send a representative to the House. Read the WHOLE document before you cite a section out of context to make a point. Most citizens today do not really know what is in the Constitution, so the morons in congress think they can pass an unconstitutional law and no one will notice.

Article 1, Section 2, Clause 1:

“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. "

passing this piece of legislature is unconstitutional.

For the best part of the last 8 years we have been complaining that George the Second has been shredding and ignoring the Constitution. And here we are, trying to do the very same thing. When its bad for them to do it but good for us to do it, Can you spell: Hypocrisy? We have 3 choices within one option. The only option is to obey the Supreme Law of the Land. Failure to do that would be to invite a slide toward anarchy. The 3 choices are: 1) Amend the Constitution; 2) Cede the residential areas of the District of Columbia to a State or States; 3) Forget it. My son is one American who does not have a representative in Congress. He lives in Italy. Should we establish a Congressional District or 2 or more for the ex-patriots of the world? How about a Congressional District for our Navy fleets at sea? For our land and air forces abroad? For our astronauts in space?

article 1 section 8 clause 17 doesn’t say ANYTHING relative here.

“To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;—And”

so the federal government has the authority to exercise legislature over dc. whats your point? that doesn’t negate the fact that the house of representatives is MANDATED to be made up of states, and dc isn’t a state.

What is clear to me is too many people want to change the Constitution to suit their own needs. I am sick of people using the race card for every little thing. The Constitution is clear. The last time I checked the District of Columbia is not a state!!! I if the people of the District of Columbia want to have representation I suggest they apply for statehood.

Freedom of Speech in danger!! S.Amendment 591 to S.160 is where the real story is at. I’m not trying to take anything away from the S.160 comments though. A lot of people believe that Obama and other Dem’s in Congress don’t want the Fairness Doctrine and for most of them, they can legitimately say that they voted against it when they voted against the Broadcaster Freedom Act. However, the S. Amnd 591 to S.160 is the back door to the Fairness Doctrine. It is going to allow President Obama and his administration to decide when a radio station is or is not fairly giving air time to opposing views. He’s doing this establishing racial quotas and only allowing 10% of a stations air time to broadcast Nationally Syndicated programs. So any station not agreeing with certain view points will financially crushed for not obeying. Rush Limbaugh was right. LIberals can’t agree, so they just shut you up, or down in this case.

It’s such a shame??? What would be wrong with annexing all but the federally owned real estate into Va. or Maryland?

There are two arguments here: 1) whether DC should be represented in Congress, and 2) whether this bill is constitutional. Just because one argues that the bill is unconstitutional does not necessarily mean that one is against DC being represented in Congress. It is only saying that, if DC being represented in Congress is a desirable thing, it should be done in accordance with the Constitution. We have survived these last 220 years because we subject ourselves to a controlling document. Merely wanting something really, really badly does not justify short-cutting (and weakening) that document. If it worthy of doing, convince enough people to agree with you and make it happen… the right way.

There is no “no taxation without representation” clause in the Constitution. There are, however, clear rules explaining the makeup of the Congress.

A vote for President in D.C. required a constitutional amendment (the 23rd) – why wouldn’t this?

dc isn’t part of maryland. in fact, dc isn’t part of ANY state. the idea of dc being an independent city was so that no single state was viewed as being more important than any other. this is part of why we can’t just make dc a state.

the only constitutional thing i can think of is a constitutional amendment to give dc the right to a HoR representative. (not that this is an easy thing to accomplish, it would require 2/3 of the senate, 2/3 of the house, and 2/3 of the states. there is a reason we haven’t had many amendments in the past ~200 years)

Amendment 591 is bad news. If someone invests time, energy, and money to be able to broadcast their views on radio, they shouldn’t be forced to let other people piggybank on that investment.

Obviously, this is yet another chipping-away at free speech rights. If we let this pass, it’ll be downhill from here. Imagine what would happen if they went after websites next!

I can’t believe this was even proposed to Congress — not only is the main bill unconstitutional (since DC isn’t a state), but 591 is also a direct attack the First Amendment.

" If this bill gets ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court SHAME ON THEM. "

if this gets ruled unconstitutional, it would be the right decision. look at the parts of the constitution quoted in this comment thread.

no amendment, no way to justify this as constitutional. shame on YOU for disregarding the constitution.

DC’s taxes are local taxes (except for the federal income taxes which all of us pay), not state taxes. Citizens of the city has full representation for those taxes. You could make an point that they have a viable argument for taxation without representation with regards to the federal income taxes; however, you’d be hard pressed to prove they are less represented than anyone not living in DC in that regard. They have a delegate that can sit on committees and propose legislation (the delegate simply cannot vote on the House floor).

DC was deliberately designed to both NOT be a state and NOT be part of a state.

A better solution would be to redistrict areas surrounding DC (that is, in VA and MD) to include portions of the city in those various districts.

“If you are a citizen of the United States you are guaranteed representation in congress”

Not true. If you are a citizen of one of the states of the United States, you are guaranteed that. If we need to amend the constitution to give residents of DC representation, then we should amend the constitution. If we need to redistrict the population of DC to be part of the states of Maryland and Virginia, then we should do that.

But let’s not violate our constitution just because the people want a rep. We do NOT live in a democracy, governed by mob rule. We live in a constitutional republic. There is a difference, and our founding fathers specifically said they do not want to live in a democracy. A true democracy doesn’t have any need of a constitution.

Why does the race card come out on EVERY issue? I think no matter what the discussion is race is alway s brought up. Lets stop concentrating on the color of each others skin and talk about the issue at hand.

I agree 100% with the redistricting idea. It’s the only idea that does not directly violate the Constitution.

People who live in DC, choose to live there. It is not a state, was never intended by our founding fathers to be a state.

Very simply they don’t have to live there, there are 50 Sovereign States in the United States of America that constitutional have representatives.

Capitalism, Where Art Thou?
The U.S. Constitution, Where Art Thou?
Freedom & Liberty, Where Art Thou?
Honest Politicians who Aren’t in Violation of their Oath of Office, Where Art Thou?

It seems apparent that Most of the politicians really do not care about “We The People”. Their “Love of Power” has taken over. There is a solution in the “The Bill of Rights”. Just read it.

I pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, One Nation Under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

I am just so tired, fed up really with politicians in this country ignoring the Constitution and passing laws that suit their fancy. The Constitution should NOT be a “living breathing document” as some on left believe. Their is a proper way of changing the supreme law of the land and that is by amending it as described within it. Politicians should have the b—— to gut up and try to go about effecting the change they want properly.

Clearly Unconstitutional. Read Section 2 of the 14th Ammendment.

JeffSimonds is right. While I do not really have a problem with the D.C. representative amendment, I DO have a problem with the doors that are being opened to endanger freedom of speech.
We just have to be really careful. A lot of those voting against this Act were probably voting against it because of the Fairness Doctrine issue…. not the Washington DC representative issue.

I suggest that DC residents be dropped from the federal income tax roles and, at the same time, they be removed from all federal gov. handouts. Do you agree?

Much thoughtful commentary here. Unquestionably, DC’s American citizens should be allowed congressional representation. As one commenter noted DC wasn’t intended by our founding fathers to be a city, only the capital. But, now it’s a very large city with millions of effectively disenfranchised Americans. However, I think we would all agree that to enfranchise these folks requires a constitutional amendment. I see that S 160 foresees this Act’s being unconstitutional, thus it’s provision for expedited judicial review of the Act’s constitutionality. Once the Act is struck down, which I would hope it would be strictly on constitutional grounds, then let the amendment process begin in earnest. Would be heartening to see the Constitution preserved, protected and defended for a change.

I think that this is unconstitutional. But I’d support a Constitutional Amendment to add a Senator and two Congressmen for ALL non-state U.S. territories (D.C., Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, etc)

Despite the painful parsing and race-baiting, it’s patently obvious to any honorable and clear-thinking American that the Act flies in the face of the Constitution. But, I’m afraid our once sacred Constitution, already in tatters, is no longer important to our self-serving “leaders”. Welcome to the Democratic Socialist Republic of America.

Article I
Section 2
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.

Washington DC is not a state therefore it can’t have a voting representative.

While this is an interesting set of comments are any of you doing anything else?

If this really about taxation w/o representation then amend the Constitution.

Why does every liberal democrat cry racism everytime someone opposes something they want? Is it because they react without thoughtful, intelligent and informed information? It is getting tiresome to hear. Grow-up, take a deep breath, and try being a reasonable, responsible person.

Listening to Sen. Lieberman, I think the bill’s sponsors anticipated its’ being unconstitutional. But, what entity will actually step up and challenge its constitutionality before SCOTUS? I’m afraid there are precious few law makers on the Hill who much care about the Constitution. To do the right thing, the Constitution needs to be amended. in this anything-goes climate, don’t hold your breath.

They can pass all the laws they want but that doesn’t make them constitutional. This one would be unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court can’t be trusted to follow the constitution and rule accordingly.