In their attempt to add two U.S. Senators and one U.S. Representative to their number, Washington Democrats in the House of Representatives voted along party lines to create a new state out of the District of Columbia.
If approved, the new name would be “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.”
Frederick Douglass was born and escaped from slavery in my home county–Talbot County, Maryland.
Vote totals yesterday (216-208 straight party line vote) vs. 6/26/20 (232-180 nearly straight party line vote, with 1 Democrat voting against).
See also
Democrats are evil and dumb.
The U.S. Constitution would have to be amended to make DC a state.
DEMOCRATS have proven that they are not constrained by the U.S. Constitution
nor do they respect it as it stands in the way of their quest for ever more power.
I don’t know about that, bred winner. There are only 27 amendments but 50 states.
Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1:
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.[
Correcting, the clause you cited definitely applies, since the current District of Columbia was created by existing state of Maryland ceding 69 square miles to form its portion of DC through legislation in 1790.
The Virginia Retrocession of 1846 set staturory precedent for returning any portion of current DC to an existing state ceding territory back to its existing state originally ceding its territory, which was constitutional under Clause 1.
Plus, the 23rd Amendment established 3 Electoral College votes to the District of Columbia, and my understanding of H.R. 51, the remainder of DC, the Federal portion that would not be in a state, would have 0 population to use those 3 Electoral College votes in future presidential elections.
So including amending Clause 1, the existing DC Electoral Votes would need to be repealed by Constitutional amendment.
As for other states that were once part of same territories, the Carolinas predate the Constitution, the Dakotas were split from the Dakota Territory prior to statehood, Arizona and New Mexico were split from the original 1846 New Mexico Territory in 1863, decades (nearly 5) prior to statehood.
The only one I’d have to research is West Virginia’s split from Virginia, but that was during the Civil War so that circumstance had something to do with remaining separate states after the war.
The state of Maine was originally part of the Massachusetts colony, but remained a separate territory after Constitution, and became a separate state due to the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
Texas unique in multiple ways, since it was a sovereign nation, the Lone Star Republic from 1836-1845. During the Texas Republic, Texas ceded territory to the United States to pay off its debts, territory which extended into present day Colorado.
The Texas panhandle boundary was set right at the 36′ 30″ of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, to insure should Texas be admitted to the United States as a state, no doubt that Texas would, under Missouri Compromise be considered a “slave state”.
Back to current DC, the fastest way for DC residents to have Congressional representation without amending the Constitution would be through retrocession to Maryland. H.R. 51, if it ever passed Senate and signed into law, would be struck down by the courts.
I had heard that the state they want to create would carve out a NEW capitol that would sorta be inside the NEW state of DC.
So they would get a new state with federal representation in both chambers and there would still be a federal territory that would get 3 votes (on top of the new state which would have 3 votes) at least in presidential elections as per the 23rd amendment or whatever the one was back in the early 60’s.
Essentially, the new DC would be very small.
DC would be turned into a state, and a small portion of the city would be reserved as the capitol.
That’s what I heard!
But those were just rumors.
I guess you could think of it as greater and lesser DC.
Or like if you broke up Chicago into two cities, but one was just the loop and everything was the rest of Chicago…
That’s sorta the way I heard the proposal described a year or two ago, but idk what the Democrats are doing now.
They change their minds a lot, and they also don’t think things through very well.
But in my opinion it’s very dumb and also blacks don’t need more representation in the government they are already overrepresented and it’s hurting every other race.
The slaveholder Washington, will have his name removed soon after the negro mob gets its wicked way.
Just remember the black mob re-elected the cokehead Marion Barry as Mayor, AFTER his drug conviction!
https://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Mayor-regainedWashington-spotafter-prison-stint-5913049.php