Eleanor Holmes Norton

politician; activist

Personal Information

Born June 13, 1937, in Washington, DC; daughter of Coleman (a civil servant) and Vela (Lynch) Holmes (a schoolteacher); married Edward Norton, 1965 (divorced, 1993); children: Katherine, John.
Education: Antioch College, B.A., 1960; Yale University, M.A., 1963, LL.B., 1964.
Politics: Democrat.

Career

Law clerk, Federal District Court, 1964-65; assistant legal director, ACLU, 1965-70; executive assistant to mayor of New York City, 1971-74; chairperson, NYC Commission on Human Rights, 1970-77, and Commission on Human Rights, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1977-81; senior fellow, Urban Institute, 1981-82; professor of law, Georgetown University, 1982--; DC Delegate to United States Congress, 1990--. Coauthor of Sex Discrimination and the Law, Causes and Remedies, 1975; contributor to numerous professional journals.

Life's Work

Political allies and opponents alike agree that Eleanor Holmes Norton--Washington, D.C.'s delegate to Congress and ardent supporter of statehood for the District--is an extraordinarily accomplished and intelligent woman, skilled at political dealmaking. Relatively powerless as politicians go--the D.C. delegate has only limited voting powers in Congress--she nonetheless has made her presence known on a number of national issues since taking office in 1990. But her abilities in transforming a once-symbolic political seat into a meaningful pulpit for her causes should come as no surprise. Throughout her professional career, Norton has successfully taken on tough assignments with one clear goal emerging throughout her work: a steadfast insistence that government and society respect human rights.

A fourth generation Washingtonian, Norton was born on June 13, 1937. Her father was a government worker in the District's bureaucracy and her mother taught school. She has said that an event she experienced while growing up in Washington helped shape her beliefs about human justice. In 1949, when she was 12 years old, Norton watched a protest outside of Hecht's department store. Activist Mary Church Terrell was picketing the store because blacks were not allowed to use Hecht's bathrooms, though they were allowed to buy clothes there. Norton held on to that memory of protest when she left Washington in 1955 to attend Antioch College in Ohio, from which she received her undergraduate degree. She then attended Yale University, where in 1963 she received a master's degree in American Studies and in 1964 she earned her law degree.

Following an assignment in Philadelphia as clerk to federal court judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Norton was appointed the assistant legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). During the turbulent civil rights movement of the 1960s, she also worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. In 1968 she won the first case she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court; in that proceeding, Norton--an unswerving advocate of free speech--argued on behalf of a white supremacist group that had been barred from holding a rally in Maryland. Also, as an ACLU lawyer, she once sued the mayor of New York City, John Lindsay, on behalf of the segregationist politician George Wallace, who was initially prevented from making a speech at Shea Stadium during his 1968 presidential campaign. Somewhat ironically, in April of 1970, Lindsay awarded Norton her first political post--city commissioner of human rights.

At the time of her appointment, Norton was quoted in McCall's magazine as saying, "As commissioner, I will attempt to see that no man is judged by the irrational criteria of race, religion, or national origin. And I assure you I use the word 'man' in the generic sense, for I mean to see that the principle of nondiscrimination becomes a reality for women as well."

She then began a remarkable string of achievements, tenaciously battling prejudice and injustice. Combating housing discrimination, intervening to reverse a state ruling that denied a polio victim a teaching certificate, and suing a real estate broker who would not rent to blacks were just a few of the actions Norton took in New York City. In doing so, she made enemies. Conservatives fretted about her activism, while some members of the black community criticized her for placing too much emphasis on women's issues at the expense of combating racial prejudice. She was quoted in McCall's as saying, "It's a shame that this criticism exists ... because black people and women are going to have to get together if we're going to create some change in this country. I don't for a moment believe that women have suffered the same kind of injustices that blacks have--women have never been enslaved. But still, many of the psychological and economic problems are the same. This country would go bankrupt in a day if the Supreme Court suddenly ordered the powers-that-be to pay back wages to children of slaves and to the women who've worked all their lives for half wages or no pay."

While in New York, Norton also taught a class at New York University Law School, hosted a television program called "Open Circuit," and conducted a radio program.

After her impressive performance in New York, Norton was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve as chairperson of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a post she held for four years. Following her government service, she focused on teaching law and became a tenured professor at Georgetown University. She also served on a panel created by President Gerald Ford to look into America's welfare system. Throughout her various career positions, she has been sought out by commentators soliciting opinions on various issues, from the war in Kuwait to the role of affirmative action in America. On affirmative action, she said in an interview with Essence in 1990: "Affirmative action is the most important antidiscrimination technique ever instituted in the United States. It is the one tool that has had a demonstrable effect on discrimination.... Affirmative action, by all statistical measures, has been the central ingredient to the creation of the Black middle class."

During his 1988 bid for the presidency, Jesse Jackson named Norton his representative at the convention during debate over the Democratic party's platform. The party "outsider," Jackson was thought to have chosen Norton partly because she was so well respected among Democrats; soon Ebony was calling her a "national Democratic Party power broker." When Walter Fauntroy, the man who had represented the District in Congress for 20 years, announced he would be stepping down in 1990 to run (unsuccessfully) for mayor, Norton shifted her focus from the wide-ranging arena of national politics to the bread and butter concerns of Washington.

Norton was quoted in Ebony as saying that Fauntroy's decision was "a watershed moment in the history of the district," adding that it was time for Washington "to seize the opportunity and declare a new start, to strike up a redefined relationship with Congress and the White House and form its top elected officials into a coordinated team." But first she had to win the seat, a goal that seemed easily within reach until just before the Democratic primary in the fall of 1990.

In the days preceding the September primary, Norton was hit with a stunning setback. According to the Washington Post, reporters had received an anonymous leak that Norton and her husband had failed to pay District income taxes between 1982 and 1989. At a hastily called news conference, Norton tearfully explained that her husband, Edward, not she, was responsible for the family finances. The Nortons eventually paid $88,000 in back taxes and penalties.

"But many voters were skeptical of the explanation, and what had been expected to be a lopsided victory turned into a closer race," the Washington Post reported. Norton won the primary with 40 percent of the vote, compared to 33 percent for the second place finisher. In November, she gathered 62 percent of the vote against Republican candidate Harry Singleton.

While her political career survived the tax scandal, her marriage did not. The couple legally separated just days after the 1990 election; the Washington Post quoted her friends as saying the Nortons' split resulted directly from the tax controversy. The two were divorced in 1993. The Nortons have two children including a daughter, Katherine, who has Down's syndrome. Norton was quoted in Ebony as saying of her daughter, "Katherine is an extraordinary human being and it's a pleasure to bring out the best in her."

Once in Congress Norton quickly began to distinguish herself from previous District representatives. Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy noted admiringly that Norton had traveled out of the District only twice in the 18 months following her 1990 election. "By February ?1992?, according to a tally compiled by her staff, she had attended 500 community meetings. She averages two congressional hearings a day," Milloy wrote. Commentators described her activities as "parochial," but in the best sense of the word.

While weighing in on various national and international topics, Norton's first term in Congress was marked primarily by a focus on local issues. The Christian Science Monitor pointed out that she was able to convince Congress to appropriate $100 million to the District to help Washington quickly avert a budget crisis. That was part of $300 million in new federal money she won for the District. "She took on the federal bureaucracy in neighborhood disputes, delivering a level of constituent service that was absent under her predecessor," according to an article in the Washington Post.

Other issues addressed in her first term included pressuring the National Park Service--which administers a wide swath of territory in the federal city--to install lights in crime- ridden areas; advocacy of an international trade center in the District; support for a referendum that would make manufacturers of assault weapons liable for crimes committed with their products; and opposition to the death penalty.

In an October 1992 editorial in the Washington Post entitled "A Second Term for Mrs. Norton," the paper opined, "She has been a spectacular representative of District interests in Congress." A spectacular Democrat, the paper could have added. Throughout her first term, Norton was a frequent critic of then-President George Bush, becoming the first elected leader to urge Bush to do something positive in the wake of the rioting that erupted in Los Angeles after the Rodney King/police brutality verdict.

At the 1992 Democratic convention, Norton made a pitch for D.C. statehood, which President Bush opposed. The Washington Post quoted her as telling the convention, "Give us a president who is not afraid to support at home the democracy he demands abroad.... Give us full-service democracy, not lip- service paternalism." Norton's strong words derived from the fact that she holds the statehood issue at the top of her political agenda. "I am proud to be an American, proud to represent 600,000 Americans, and proud to be in the only party pledged to make the District of Columbia the 51st state," she told the convention, according to the Post article. Norton was reelected in 1992 without opposition.

Before tackling the statehood issue, Congress gave Norton wider powers than any other District representative had ever had. Delegates such as herself, and those representing four U.S. territories, are constitutionally barred from becoming full members of the House. They can vote in committee, speak on the House floor, introduce legislation, and even head a committee through seniority. Until January of 1993, though, they were unable to vote on the House floor. But Norton devised a legal strategy--she is a Constitutional scholar, after all--that allowed Congress to grant her a House vote. Norton noted that the full House meets in what parliamentarians call a "committee of the whole." Since delegates can vote in committee, she reasoned that the committee of the whole--which is how Congress gathers to debate and vote on substantive issues--is in fact yet another committee of Congress. Delegates are still barred from final congressional votes, but by the time legislation reaches that stage most legislation has already been reshaped and the issues decided.

Norton was quoted in the Washington Post as saying her new voting privileges were a "sign of respect" for the District. Controversy aside, Norton was pleased with the historic developments she initiated, telling the Washington Post, "As far as I'm concerned it's added immeasurably to my ability to get things done in the House. This shows that the House has done everything for the District it can, short of granting statehood. And that means something."

As for statehood, Norton and other District politicians have always complained that Congress micromanages the city's affairs. Appropriations committees in Congress can overrule sections of the city's budget and Congress has a significant influence in how the city operates. Washington's mayor, Sharon Pratt Kelly, has accused Congress of adopting a "plantation mentality" in its dealings with the predominantly African American city. Norton, in an interview with Emerge, said, "In the 1960s the Civil Rights Movement telegraphed to the world that the United States was living a lie. We are in a comparable situation today ... because the stance we have taken internationally in terms of urging democratic principles is directly contrary to the way we treat people in our own capital."

In 1992 Norton's statehood bill died in committee when it became apparent that President Bush would veto the measure no matter what Congress did. Her bill would create the state of New Columbia with the federal government controlling only the White House, Capitol, and Supreme Court, as well as federal monuments and some other governmental buildings. Republicans oppose the measure since statehood would almost certainly guarantee that the heavily-Democratic District of Columbia would send two new Democrats to the Senate.

But Norton has vowed not to give up on the issue, and she regularly lobbies her colleagues in Congress whenever she can. To her, the statehood issue, which would guarantee Washingtonians a full voice in their future, is similar to the other issues of fair play that have motivated her from her earliest days watching civil rights protests outside the neighborhood department store. "You can't whip folks into line on statehood like you can on a budget vote," she told the Washington Post Magazine. "People have to believe in your cause." And it's clear that if anyone can turn around an opinion with a forceful, well-reasoned argument, that person is Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Awards

Honorary degrees from more than 50 colleges and universities; Young Woman of the Year Award, Junior Chamber of Commerce, 1965; Louise Waterman Wise Award, American Jewish Congress, 1971, among others.

Further Reading

• Christian Science Monitor, March 31, 1992, p. 14.
• Ebony, January 1991, p. 105.
• Emerge, March 1993, p. 32.
• Essence, May 1990, p. 66.
• McCall's, October 1971, p. 51.
• Washington Post, March 5, 1991, p. B1; January 12, 1992, p. B1; May 3, 1992, p. B1; July 15, 1992, p. A23; October 28, 1992, p. 24; December 8, 1992, p. C1; August 2, 1993, p. D1.
• Washington Post Magazine, July 4, 1993, p. 21.

— John LoDico

Eleanor Holmes Norton is a politician, lawyer, educator, and civil rights activist. As the District of Columbia's delegate to the U.S. Congress, she expanded the district's power over its own affairs.

Norton, the eldest of three daughters, was born to Coleman Holmes and Vela Holmes on June 13, 1937, in Washington, D.C. Her father was a government employee in the District of Columbia, and her mother was a schoolteacher. Norton grew up in the segregated Washington, D.C., of the 1940s and 1950s and was a member of the last segregated class at Dunbar High School. Norton attended Antioch College, where she participated in many civil rights protests, and she graduated from Yale Law School.

In 1965 Norton became an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), seeking to defend the freedoms of speech, press, and assembly. The clients she represented were not always those she had imagined. Among the people she represented were former Alabama governor George Wallace, an avowed segregationist, who had been denied a permit to speak at New York's Shea Stadium, and a group of white supremacists who had been barred from holding a rally. The white supremacists' suit eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Norton argued it and won (Carroll v. President of Princess Anne, 393 U.S. 175, 89 S. Ct. 347, 21 L. Ed. 2d 325 [1968]).

In 1970 Norton became head of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. In 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed her to run the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which was facing a backlog of nearly one-hundred thousand unsettled affirmative action and discrimination complaints. At the EEOC, Norton initiated a system known as rapid charge processing, which provided for informal settlement procedures. By late 1980, the backlog had dropped to thirty-two thousand complaints. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People criticized the agency's emphasis on settling individual complaints rather than attacking broad patterns of discrimination. But Norton said that only by wiping out the backlog could the EEOC get to these broader issues. By the time she left the agency, it was taking on more sweeping investigations, antidiscrimination guidelines for employers were in place, and the Carter administration was enforcing workplace laws such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (29 U.S.C.A. 206) and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (29 U.S.C.A. 621).

Following Carter's defeat in 1980, Norton moved on to the Urban Institute. In 1982, she joined the law faculty at Georgetown University Law Center, where she wrote widely on civil rights and education issues. In 1990 Norton was elected the nonvoting D.C. delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. In her first term, she helped the district government obtain $300 million in new federal aid and a guarantee of steady increases in future aid. She secured seats on three House committees that greatly affect the district's economy, and she was the only first-year legislator invited on a congressional fact-finding mission to the Middle East following the Persian Gulf War.

Norton also sought to increase the power of the D.C. delegate position. The district's delegate to Congress is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution from becoming a full member of the House of Representatives, and had been allowed to vote only in legislative committees. Norton argued that because she could vote in other committees, she should also be allowed to vote in the committee of the whole where most of the business of the full House is conducted. In February 1993, the House granted Norton and the representatives of four U.S. territories—Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa—a limited vote in the committee of the whole. The voting limitations included a provision that any time the delegates provided a margin of victory for legislation, a second vote would be held, from which the delegates would be excluded. Despite these restrictions, House Republicans filed suit in federal district court asking that the delegates' right to vote be taken away. In March 1993, U.S. district judge Harold Greene rejected the challenge (Michel v. Anderson, 817 F. Supp. 126 [D.D.C.]). The Republicans then appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower court (14 F. 3d 623 [D.C. Cir. 1994]). Norton and the four territorial representatives retained their voting privileges until January 1995, when a new House took them away.

Norton's efforts on behalf of the District of Columbia extended outside the House of Representatives. Traditionally, the senior senator from each state, if a member of the president's party, recommends to the president candidates for federal judgeships and U.S. attorney positions. Because the district has no senators, the president alone has made these appointments for it. In 1993, Norton convinced President Bill Clinton to give her the advisory powers reserved for senators and to allow her to nominate candidates for a U.S. attorney position and five federal judgeships—becoming the first district congressional delegate to do so. Norton established the Federal Judicial Nominating Commission, composed of members from the district, to forward recommendations to her. All five of the judges Norton ultimately recommended to the president had been active in D.C. legal circles, and four of the five lived in the district.

Norton also continued her predecessors' efforts to obtain statehood for the district. After a three-year effort to bring the issue to the House floor, the measure failed by a vote of 277-153. But Norton said she would continue her efforts and would put new emphasis on gaining support for legislation that would expand the district's limited home rule. Norton also worked for increased federal contributions to the city's pension system, for an end to congressional review of the city's budget, and for the right of D.C. residents to choose local judges.

In 1994, Norton was elected to a third term in the House of Representatives.

Quotes:

"The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don't agree with."

Eleanor Holmes Norton
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from District of Columbia's At-large district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 1991
Preceded by	Walter E. Fauntroy
6th Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
In office 1977 – 1981
Preceded by	Lowell W. Perry
Succeeded by	Clarence Thomas
Born	June 13, 1937 (1937-06-13) (age 72) Washington, D.C.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Edward Norton (m. 1965, div. 1993)
Residence	Washington, D.C.
Alma mater	Antioch College Yale University Yale Law School
Occupation	Attorney
Religion	Episcopalian

Eleanor Holmes Norton (born June 13, 1937) is a Delegate to Congress representing the District of Columbia. In her position she is able to serve on and vote with committees, as well as speak from the House floor. However, she is not permitted to vote on final passage of any legislation because she is not a full member of Congress.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Delegate to Congress 2.1 Committee assignments 3 Appearances 4 References 5 External links

Early life

Eleanor Holmes was born in Washington, D.C. to Coleman Holmes, a civil servant, and Vela Holmes née Lynch, a schoolteacher. She attended Antioch College (B.A. 1960), Yale University (M.A. 1963) and Yale Law School (L.L.B 1964).^[1]

While in college and graduate school, Norton was active in the civil rights movement and an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. By the time Norton graduated from Antioch, she had already been arrested for organizing and participating in sit-ins in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Ohio. While in law school, she traveled to Mississippi for the Mississippi Freedom Summer and worked with civil rights stalwarts like Medgar Evers. Norton's first encounter with a recently released, but physically beaten Fannie Lou Hamer forced Norton to bear witness to the intensity of violence and Jim Crow repression in the South.^[2] Her time with SNCC inspired her lifelong commitment to social activism and her budding sense of feminism. In the early 1970s, Eleanor Holmes Norton was a signer of the Black Woman’s Manifesto, a classic document of the Black feminist movement.

Upon graduation from law school, she became a law clerk to Federal District Court Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. At the end of her clerkship, she later served as an assistant legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, adjunct assistant professor at New York University Law School, and executive assistant to the Mayor of New York. In the early 1970s, Mayor John Lindsay appointed her as the head of the New York City Human Rights Commission and she held the first hearings in the country on discrimination against women. Prominent feminists from throughout the country came to New York City to testify, while Norton used the platform as a means of raising public awareness about the application of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to women and sex discrimination.^[2]

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter as the first female Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Norton released the EEOC's first set of regulations outlining what constituted sexual harassment and declaring that sexual harassment was indeed a form of sexual discrimination that violated federal civil rights laws.^[3]

She has also served as a senior fellow of the Urban Institute and a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

Norton was one of the founders of the Women's Rights Law Reporter, the first legal periodical to focus exclusively on women's rights.

Delegate to Congress

Jack Kemp, Adrian Fenty, and Norton at DC Vote rally on Capitol Hill

Norton was elected in 1990 as a Democratic delegate to the House of Representatives, defeating city council member Betty Ann Kane in the primary despite the last-minute revelation that Norton had failed to file D.C. income tax returns for several years and owed thousands of dollars.^[4][5] Her campaign manager was Donna Brazile.^[5] The delegate position was open because Del. Walter Fauntroy was running for mayor rather than seeking reelection.^[6] Norton took office on January 3, 1991, and has been reelected every two years since.^[6] Norton is up for reelection in November 2010.

Delegates to Congress are entitled to sit in the House of Representatives and vote in committee (including the Committee of the Whole), but are not allowed to take part in legislative floor votes.^[7] The District shares this limited form of congressional representation with Puerto Rico and four other U.S. territories: Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Legislation strongly supported by Norton that would grant the District of Columbia a voting representative in the House, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009, was passed by the United States Senate on February 26, 2009. If the House, in which she has sponsored the bill, passes it as well and President Barack Obama signs it, the elected representative from the District would be entitled to full voting rights in the 112th Congress. However, the act would not grant Norton the right to vote in the 111th and current Congress, as she would remain in her elected office of delegate for the duration of her two-year term.^[8] However, Norton could run for election to the office of representative in 2010, and if she were elected and took office as a member of the 112th Congress, she would be entitled to full voting rights in the House of Representatives thereafter.

She is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

See also: District of Columbia voting rights

Committee assignments

• Committee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection
  • Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response
• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
  • Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Post Office, and the District of Columbia
  • Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives
• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Aviation
  • Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management (Chairwoman)
  • Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment

Appearances

On July 27, 2006, Norton appeared on the "Better Know a District" segment of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, in which she spiritedly defended the District of Columbia's claim to being a part of the United States.^[9] Norton also appeared on the joint Colbert Report/Daily Show "Midterm Midtacular" special on November 7, 2006.^[10] A further interview with Stephen Colbert was conducted on March 22, 2007,^[11] and April 24, 2007 on the subject of representation in the District of Columbia.^[12] On February 12, 2008, Colbert and Norton discussed her status as a superdelegate as well as her support of Barack Obama for President.^[13] She appeared once again on February 11, 2009 to discuss D.C. representation and promised Colbert that she would make him an honorary citizen of Washington, D.C., and give him a key to the city, if D.C. citizens were given representation. Colbert in turn gave Norton a "TV promise" that he would be there should that happen.^[14]

Colbert and Norton maintain a satirical rivalry, with their interviews usually involving Colbert belittling Norton's fight for fair representation of D.C. and, in retaliation, Norton famously questioning Colbert's nationality due to the pronunciation of his surname. Once, Colbert said he thought Norton was undressing him with her eyes.

Norton is a regular panelist on the PBS women's news program To the Contrary.

On June 27, 2008, Norton appeared on Democracy Now! to discuss the Supreme Court's ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller.^[15] Mrs. Holmes Norton proudly maintains an anti-gun stance in defiance of Heller.

References

1. ^ Biography of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
2. ^ ^{a b} Voices of the Civil Rights Movement
3. ^ Sexual Harassment - Further Readings
4. ^ Abramowitz, Michael (1990-09-12). "D.C. Delegate; Norton Overcomes Last-Minute Crisis to Win". The Washington Post: p. A21. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72613775.html?FMT=ABS. Retrieved 2008-07-28. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Melton, R.H.; Abramowitz, Michael (1990-09-25). "Second D.C. Candidate Didn't Pay Taxes; Shadow Seat Hopeful Says Failure to File Is a Protest for Statehood". The Washington Post: p. A01. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72616347.html?FMT=ABS. Retrieved 2008-07-28. 
6. ^ ^{a b} District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics. "Historical Elected Officials: Delegate to the US House of Representatives". http://www.dcboee.org/information/eo_index/history/delegate.shtm. Retrieved 2008-07-20. 
7. ^ DC Vote - The Local Delegation: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.)
8. ^ "Text of S.160 as Introduced in Senate District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009". OpenCongress. http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s160/text. 
9. ^ The Colbert Report - 07/27/2006 - Better Know a District - District of Columbia - Eleanor Holmes Norton
10. ^ The Colbert Report: Indecision 2006 - Midterm Midtactular - 11/07/2006 - Robert Wexler and Eleanor Holmes Norton
11. ^ The Colbert Report - 03/22/2007 - Eleanor Holmes Norton
12. ^ The Colbert Report - 04/24/2007 - Eleanor Holmes Norton
13. ^ The Colbert Report - 02/12/2008 - Eleanor Holmes Norton
14. ^ The Colbert Report - 02/11/2009 - DC Voting Rights Act - Eleanor Holmes Norton
15. ^ Supreme Court Strikes Down DC Handgun Ban

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Eleanor Holmes Norton

• U.S. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton official government website

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• History and powers of DC's Delegate to Congress
• The Colbert Report: Better Know a District – District of Columbia – Eleanor Holmes Norton Pt. 1

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Walter E. Fauntroy	Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from the District of Columbia January 3, 1991 – present	Incumbent

v • d • e Delegates to the United States House of Representatives from the District of Columbia Chipman • position abolished • Fauntroy • Norton

District of Columbia's current delegation to the United States Congress Senators None (Federal district) Shadow Senator: Michael D. Brown (D), Paul Strauss (D) Delegate(s) Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) Shadow Representative: Mike Panetta (D) State delegations Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming Non-voting delegations American Samoa • District of Columbia • Guam • Northern Mariana Islands • Puerto Rico • U.S. Virgin Islands

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)