Democrats Repeal the Constitution

It appears that the District of Columbia is about to get a real seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.  From Real Clear Politics:

After decades of trying, the District of Columbia is one step closer to receiving full-voting representation in the House of Representatives. With 61 yea votes, the Senate gave final approval yesterday to the D.C. Voting Rights Act of 2009, and House Democratic leadership has indicated it plans to take up the bill by the middle of next week.

Now I acknowledge the problem here.  D.C. has about 588,000 residents.  That’s more than North Dakota.  Yet they have no seats in the House of Representatives (with voting power), nor do they have seats in the Senate.  That’s because D.C. is a federal territory, not a state. 

The bill moving through Congress would give the District one seat in the House, which is what it would get if it were a state.  Given the demographics of the District, that seat would almost certainly be filled by a Democrat.  In return for Republican support, an additional seat would be granted to Utah.  That would bring the total seats in the House to 437. 

There is nothing wrong with this except the fact that it is flatly in violation of the Constitution of the United States.  I give you Article One, Section Two, Clause One of said yellowed parchment:

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.

A lot of the Constitution requires interpretation.  Does free speech include the internet?  Article 1, Sec. 2 is not one of them.  Members of the House of Representatives are to be chosen by the people of the states.  A territory is not a state.  What part of that do the Democrats misunderstand? 

The solution to the problem of D.C. representation is easy: make D.C. into the State of Columbia.  That would give the Democrats two new Senate seats as well.  Maybe that’s the rub.  The Republicans would oppose it on partisan grounds.  Well, put on a full court press and call their bluff.  Let Obama bring his awesome clout to bear.  Actually, I think the Republicans should push for D.C. statehood.  It would hurt them in the short run, but it would be a principled stance and that might be worth something.  If they really want to appeal to African Americans, this might be a start. 

But giving D.C. a seat in the House without making it a state means that the Constitution counts for nothing.  We might as well establish a Church of the United States.  It is said that this will result in a challenge in Federal Courts.  Maybe so, but I can’t think just now of anyone who would have standing to sue.  You need an injury to secure standing, and who is injured by a D.C. seat?  John Boehner? 

If you value any part of the Constitution (the Equal Protection Clause?), you have to value all of it.  We seem to be about to chuck the whole damn thing.