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In Our View: D.C. ploy threatens Constitution

Daily Herald | Posted: Saturday, December 13, 2008 11:00 pm

Rep.-elect Jason Chaffetz of Utah's Third Congressional District is getting started on the right foot by opposing a bill to give the District of Columbia a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in exchange for a fourth House seat for Utah. He says it's unconstitutional, and he's right.

The Constitution requires that the House of Representatives be composed of "members chosen every second year by the people of the several states." What is it about the word "states" that is so hard for some in Congress (including, incidentally, all the other members of Utah's delegation) to understandfi Only states can elect voting members of Congress. The District of Columbia is not a state, either in name or fact. It has no governor or legislature, and Congress is its supreme political authority.

The Founding Fathers created the District as a special reservation distinct from the states so that no state would have undue influence on the capital. If George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and other great leaders believed the District should have special status under the Constitution, they would have said so.

In a broader sense, it's clear that allowing the District to elect a representative would undermine a defining element of our constitutional system: federalism. The nation was set up to balance power between the states and the central government. The District, because it is run by Congress, would unsettle that balance, giving even more power to the federal government.

This is not to say that there are no legitimate questions here. Today, more than a half-million people live in the District. That they have no vote in Congress is, at best, incongruous. However, there are three legitimate ways to give District residents a voice:

• The Constitution could be amended;

• The District could be made a state; or

• Most of the District could be annexed to Maryland.

There's no justification for the current bill for District residents, and Utah should not allow itself to be a party to an unnecessary undermining of the Constitution. We're going to get our additional seat after the 2010 census anyway, and that's not far enough away to worry about.

In Congress as a whole, this is a political horse trade. Democrats would be certain to pick up the D.C. seat, while Republicans could count on Utah to go with the GOP.

Constitutional limits must be respected. The Constitution is one of the most important checks on government power ever devised. But it's all too easy to ignore its principles or to take them for granted.

Americans would be outraged if Congress tried to repeal the First Amendment -- the bedrock of freedom of speech, assembly and religion -- or the rest of the Bill of Rights. But overriding the words and spirit of the Constitution to give a seat to Washington D.C. would also be an attack on our freedoms, albeit a more subtle one. Perhaps that's what makes it dangerous.

Any minor, short-term benefit to Utah is far outweighed by the damage to the foundations of our government.

The current mess in Washington only highlights the dangers of political horse-trading and trampling on traditional limits. We can only hope that other lawmakers in Washington come to see this, and join Chaffetz in opposing a seat for the District of Columbia.

Posted in Editorial on Saturday, December 13, 2008 11:00 pm

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