Displaying the same contempt for the rule of law previously displayed by The Washington Post, the editors of The Virginian-Pilot urge us to just ignore that pesky Constitution:
The constitutional issues surrounding D.C. statehood are – whatever. I honestly couldn’t care less. It’s all technical nonsense written to apply to a tiny company town, not to one of the world’s great cities.
Self-important members of Congress like to claim that Washingtonians can only earn representation through a constitutional amendment, ignoring the fact that an amendment – which would require states to vote against their own interests – will never happen. They also ignore the fact that representation, in a republic, is both a privilege and a right
Except when that Republic is based on a Constitution that clearly defines what entities are entitled to voting representation in Congress:
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States
And the author is wrong about one thing.
A Constitutional Amendment granted D.C. Statehood isn’t the only remedy to the representation problem that residents of the District face.
There’s also, retrocession, which would not require the supermajorities needed to ratify an Amendment to the Constitution.
But when you’re dealing with arrogance on the level of that displayed by the author, I doubt facts matter.
H/T: Tertium Quids
Well, I know the publisher of that journal — Hampden-Sydney classmate Maurice A. Jones — got a better education on the Constitution than that. We sat together in Dave Marion’s Constitutional Law class.