Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution
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Twenty‐third Amendment
Article I of the U.S. Constitution provided for congressional power to accept land from the states and administer it as the seat of government. The District of Columbia was organized under this power on land ceded by the states of Maryland and Virginia. Congress legislated for the district.
As the House report accompanying the proposal noted, “District citizens have all the obligations of citizenship, including the payment of Federal taxes, of local taxes, and service in our Armed Forces.” Although taxed and drafted, citizens of the district were not represented. Representation in Congress and electors for president are all apportioned by the Constitution to states. Hence the Constitution made no provision for representation of citizens of the district.
The Twenty‐third Amendment was proposed by Congress in 1960 and ratified in 1961. It granted the district electors not to exceed in number the amount allocated to the smallest state—in practice three electoral votes though its population would have entitled it to more.
The Supreme Court has treated the amendment as another in a long series of amendments expanding suffrage in the United States (cf. Reynolds v. Sims, 1964) and therefore precedent by analogy for its one person per vote rulings.
See also Constitutional Amendments; Vote, Right to.
— Stephen E. Gottlieb
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Twenty-Third Amendment
This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.
The Twenty-third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:
Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The Twenty-third Amendment was proposed on June 16, 1960, and ratified on March 29, 1961. The amendment rectified an omission in the Constitution that prevented residents of the District of Columbia from voting in presidential elections.
Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to accept land from the states and administer it as the seat of national government. The District of Columbia was organized under this provision from land given to the federal government by Virginia and Maryland.
The government of the city of Washington and the District of Columbia has been dominated by Congress for most of the district's history. Congress is empowered by Article I to exercise exclusive authority over the seat of government. In the 1820s Congress allowed citizens of the district to vote for a mayor and city council. In 1871 Congress created a territorial form of government for the district. All the officials, including a legislative assembly, were appointed by the president. This system was abandoned in 1874, when Congress reestablished direct control over the city government.
From the 1870s until 1961, residents of the district were denied all rights to vote. Though residents paid federal and local taxes and were drafted into the military services, they could not vote. The Twenty-third Amendment gave district residents the right to vote for president. Under the amendment the number of the district's electors cannot exceed that of the state with the smallest population. In practice, this means that the district elects three presidential electors.
The amendment did not address the issue of representation in Congress. Later, a constitutional amendment that would have given residents the right to vote for congressional representatives was proposed, but it failed to win ratification. In 1970 Congress created the position of nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives, to be elected by the district's residents.
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Amendment XXIII to the U.S. Constitution
Passed by Congress June 16, 1960. Ratified March 29, 1961.
Section 1
The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct:
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
Section 2
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
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Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10)
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Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Twenty-third Amendment (Amendment XXIII) to the United States Constitution permits citizens in the District of Columbia to vote for Electors for President and Vice President. The amendment was proposed by Congress on June 17, 1960, and ratified by the states on March 29, 1961. The first Presidential election in which it was in effect was the presidential election of 1964.
Prior to the passage of the amendment, residents of Washington, D.C. were forbidden from voting for President or Vice President as the District is not a U.S. state. However, they are still unable to send voting Representatives or Senators to Congress.
The amendment restricts the district to the number of Electors of the least populous state, irrespective of its own population. As of 2011, that state is Wyoming, which has three Electors. However, even without this clause, the district's present population would only entitle it to three Electors.
Since the passage of this amendment, the District's electoral votes have gone towards the Democratic candidates in every presidential election.[1]
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Text
Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Proposal and ratification
Ratified amendment, 1960–61
Ratified amendment post-enactment (NH: 1961, AL: 2002)
Rejected amendment
Didn't ratify amendment
Congress proposed the Twenty-third Amendment on June 17, 1960.[2] The following states ratified the amendment:
- Hawaii (June 23, 1960)
- Massachusetts (August 22, 1960)
- New Jersey (December 19, 1960)
- New York (January 17, 1961)
- California (January 19, 1961)
- Oregon (January 27, 1961)
- Maryland (January 30, 1961)
- Idaho (January 31, 1961)
- Maine (January 31, 1961)
- Minnesota (January 31, 1961)
- New Mexico (February 1, 1961)
- Nevada (February 2, 1961)
- Montana (February 6, 1961)
- South Dakota (February 6, 1961)
- Colorado (February 8, 1961)
- Washington (February 9, 1961)
- West Virginia (February 9, 1961)
- Alaska (February 10, 1961)
- Wyoming (February 13, 1961)
- Delaware (February 20, 1961)
- Utah (February 21, 1961)
- Wisconsin (February 21, 1961)
- Pennsylvania (February 28, 1961)
- Indiana (March 3, 1961)
- North Dakota (March 3, 1961)
- Tennessee (March 6, 1961)
- Michigan (March 8, 1961)
- Connecticut (March 9, 1961)
- Arizona (March 10, 1961)
- Illinois (March 14, 1961)
- Nebraska (March 15, 1961)
- Vermont (March 15, 1961)
- Iowa (March 16, 1961)
- Missouri (March 20, 1961)
- Oklahoma (March 21, 1961)
- Rhode Island (March 22, 1961)
- Kansas (March 29, 1961)
- Ohio (March 29, 1961)
- Ratification was completed on March 29, 1961. The amendment was subsequently ratified by the following states:
- New Hampshire (March 30, 1961)
- Alabama (April 11, 2002)
The New Hampshire ratification was somewhat irregular; a vote for ratification was taken on the 29th, but was immediately rescinded. Another vote was taken on the 30th to ratify the amendment.[3][4]
The amendment was rejected by the following state:
- Arkansas (January 24, 1961)
The following states have not ratified the amendment:
- Florida
- Kentucky
- Mississippi
- Georgia
- South Carolina
- Louisiana
- Texas
- North Carolina
- Virginia
Proposed repeal
The 23rd Amendment would have been repealed by the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, which proposed to give the District full representation in the United States Congress, full representation in the Electoral College system, and full participation in the process by which the U.S. Constitution is amended. The amendment (as a resolution) was passed by Congress on August 22, 1978, but failed to be ratified by the required 38 states prior to its expiration on August 22, 1986.
See also
- District of Columbia statehood movement
- District of Columbia voting rights
- District of Columbia retrocession
Notes
- ^ See Political party strength in Washington, D.C.
- ^ Mount, Steve (January 2007). "Ratification of Constitutional Amendments". http://www.usconstitution.net/constamrat.html#Am23. Retrieved October 11, 2008.
- ^ Suber, Peter. Population Changes and Constitutional Amendments: Federalism Versus Democracy. Accessed 2010-01-22.
- ^ Amendment XXIII: Election rules for the District of Columbia. Accessed 2010-01-22.
References
- Constitution of the United States.
- Kilman, Johnny and George Costello (Eds). (2000). The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation.
External links
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