Dictionary:

District of Columbia

  (dĭs'trĭkt')

A federal district of the eastern United States on the Potomac River between Virginia and Maryland. Coextensive with the city of Washington, it was established by congressional acts of 1790 and 1791 on a site selected by George Washington.

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The Constitution (Article 1, Section 8) gives Congress authority to make laws for the District of Columbia, the seat of the federal government. This power has its origins in events that took place in 1783, when soldiers angry about not being paid surrounded the Congress under the Articles of Confederation in Philadelphia, where local officials offered no protection. To ensure that the new federal government would never be as helpless, the framers of the Constitution called for a district, not exceeding 10 square miles, to serve as the seat of government.

As a result of a deal in which Southern members of Congress agreed to support the repayment of American revolutionary war debts, Northerners agreed to locate the new capital in the South. Congress approved a location for the district on the Potomac River, on a 10-square-mile site that included the existing cities of Georgetown, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia. Commissioners in charge of the project named the district in honor of Christopher Columbus, and the new capital city within the district in honor of President George Washington, whose home, Mount Vernon, lay just 20 miles south of the new district. In 1800, the federal government moved to the district.

In 1846, the citizens of the Virginia side of the district voted to return their area to Virginia, so that the current District of Columbia occupies only the land that Maryland ceded. Congress has established several different kinds of government in the district, both with elected mayors and appointed commissioners. For many years, House and Senate committees really ran the district. Dominated by Southerners, the committees did not address the needs of the city's African-American majority.

In 1968, following the assassination of the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., riots broke out in Washington. There was extensive looting and destruction of property. These events hastened plans to establish an elected city government with a mayor and city council. However, Congress retained a veto on all of the city finances. The House has a standing committee on the District of Columbia, and the Senate assigns these functions to a subcommittee of the Governmental Affairs Committee.

Although the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1961, allowed district residents to vote for President, they still cannot elect senators or representatives. The District of Columbia sends only a delegate to the House of Representatives. In 1990, the district also elected two shadow senators, including the nationally prominent African-American leader Jesse Jackson, to work for its statehood.

See also Delegates to the House of Representatives; Shadow senators

Sources

• Kenneth R. Bowling, The Creation of Washington, D.C.: The Idea and Location of the American Capital (Fairfax, Va.: George Mason University Press, 1991).
• David L. Lewis, The District of Columbia: A Bicentennial History (New York: Norton, 1976)

"To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States" (U.S. Const. art. I, § 8). The U.S. Constitution, with this proclamation, left the legal formation of a national capital up to the U.S. Congress. To this day, the District of Columbia is neither a state nor a territory and remains under congressional jurisdiction.

History

The location of the national capital was born out of a political compromise between the northern and southern states after the United States had achieved its independence. The South feared that the North would have too much influence if the capital were placed in a northern city. The North demanded federal assistance in paying its Revolutionary War debt, something the South was strongly against. Alexander Hamilton initiated a compromise whereby the federal government would pay off the war debt in return for locating the capital between the states of Maryland and Virginia on the Potomac River.

In 1800 Virginia and Maryland ceded portions of land to the federal government. The citizens living in the new capital were required to give up all the political rights they had enjoyed as inhabitants of Maryland and Virginia. In return, Congress, which had exclusive power over the district, would allow them some form of self-government. In 1802 Congress called for an appointed mayor and an elected council in the district. By 1820 the election of the mayor was also permitted.

This form of representative government lasted in the district until 1874, when Congress abolished the citizens' right to vote for their local officials and established a three-person board of commissioners appointed by the president. For over one hundred years, the residents of the District of Columbia were denied the democratic right to elected local representation.

Although residents of the district had always been required to pay federal income tax and serve in the military, their right to vote in presidential elections had been denied until the 1961 passage of the Twenty-third Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment granted the district a number of votes in the electoral college, not to exceed the number given to the least populous state.

Home Rule

In 1967 through an executive order (Exec. Order No. 11379, 32 FR 15625, 1967 WL 7776 [Pres.]), President Lyndon B. Johnson did away with the three-member board of commissioners and appointed a mayor and a council for the district. In 1970 the district was given back its nonvoting delegate in Congress. But this still did not satisfy residents who demanded full self-determination. Congress then passed the District Home Rule Act of 1973 (Pub. L. 93-198, Dec. 24, 1973, 87 Stat. 774) and restored to the citizens their right to vote for a local government. For the first time in exactly a hundred years, the residents of the District of Columbia were able to vote for a mayor and a thirteen-member council.

The Constitution granted Congress complete legislative authority over the District of Columbia. Congress alone has the jurisdiction to expand the district's powers over local government affairs. It also has the jurisdiction to contract those same powers. Congress, through the Home Rule Act, dictated the legislative powers to the district council and the executive powers to the mayor. Advisory neighborhood commissions, which are groups elected by the residents, advise the council on matters of public policy. Congress still retains ultimate legislative authority through its power to veto any of the district's legislation.

Statehood

Besides the citizens of U.S. territories, district residents are the only U.S. citizens without full representation in Congress and with federal limitations on their own local government. Advocates of statehood rebel against such restrictions. They argue that because the district's congressional delegate is not allowed to vote, residents are subject to a fundamental democratic wrong, taxation without representation. They add that because Congress retains control over the city's purse strings, city officials are powerless in raising more revenue. Federal restrictions on taxation have prevented the district from taxing commuters as have some other U.S. cities, which could have given the district a huge tax windfall.

Opponents of statehood argue that the District of Columbia belongs to all U.S. citizens, and therefore all citizens should have a say in how it is managed. Constitutionally, Congress has complete authority over the district, and to have it otherwise would require a constitutional amendment (supporters dismiss this argument, pointing out that thirty-seven states were allowed into the Union through only a simple majority vote in Congress). If the district were to become an independent state, some opponents argue, the federal government would have to abide by the laws of this new state. Opponents of statehood also maintain that the district's power needs to be checked by Congress because of the district's financial difficulties.

The push toward statehood has become a partisan issue, with the Democratic party generally in favor of it and the Republican party generally opposed. One reason for this division is the political makeup of the city, which is predominantly Democratic. Statehood would add more Democratic members to the House and the Senate. When the Democrats won the White House in 1992, the stage was set for the statehood issue to move forward through the 103d Congress.

On November 21, 1993, the House considered Bill 51, calling for the creation of New Columbia, the nation's fifty-first state. Democrats spoke in favor of statehood, saying it would give D.C. residents the same benefits of citizenship as are enjoyed by other U.S. citizens. Republicans spoke out against it, saying the city was unable to govern itself. Republican sentiments carried the day, defeating the bill by a vote of 277 to 153.

The Courts

The courts of the District of Columbia were established by an act of Congress. Originally, federal courts heard controversies that arose in the District of Columbia. Disputes over federal or district law came under the jurisdiction of the federal district courts. Appeals went from the district courts to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and then to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Just as the legislative branch of the district government became less dependent on the federal system in the 1970s, so too did the courts. The district court system was completely reorganized under the district of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act of 1970 (Pub. L. 91-358, July 29, 1970, 84 Stat. 473; Pub. L. 99-573, § 17, Oct. 28, 1973, 100 Stat. 3234, 3235). The U.S. District court no longer has jurisdiction over criminal or civil actions occurring under D.C. law. These cases are now heard by the district's new trial court, the Superior Court. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals has jurisdiction to review decisions of the Superior Court.

The district occupied entirely by Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States; bordered by Maryland to the north and Virginia to the south.

• The District of Columbia was established by acts of Congress in 1790 and 1791 on a site selected by George Washington.

Local Time: Jul 26, 11:38 PM