LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Congress lacks power to make D.C. state

OPINION:

The House of Representatives is moving to admit most of the District of Columbia as a state. This is a clearly unconstitutional act.

The District is the constitutionally created seat of the federal government. Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress power “to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever” over the District. This is a specifically enumerated, core congressional power, on par with the powers to levy taxes and declare war.

Congress can no more surrender or cede its exclusive jurisdiction over the District than it can surrender or cede its taxing or war-making powers. If it admitted any of the District as a state, Congress would be surrendering its exclusive jurisdiction over the District and ceding some of that power to the new state. Article IV of the Constitution gives Congress a broad power to admit new states, but that’s not a power to repeal, modify or delegate specific congressional powers.

There’s U.S. Supreme Court dictum confirming that Congress can’t turn part of the District into a state. In 1846 Congress “retroceded” part of the District to Virgina. Thirty years later a resident of the retroceded area tried to avoid Virginia taxes in the area by arguing it was still part of the District. Citing Virginia’s long-standing de facto (as opposed to de jure, or legal) control of the area and the reliance interests that had arisen, the Supreme Court rejected the taxpayer’s claim, but it said the retrocession was “in violation of the Constitution.”

JIM DUEHOLM

Washington