The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would have given the District of Columbia full representation in the United States Congress, full representation in the Electoral college system, and full participation in the process by which the Constitution is amended. It was proposed by Congress on August 22, 1978. It was ratified by only 16 states by the time of its expiration on August 22, 1985. It was 22 ratifications short of the needed 38 in order for the proposed amendment to have been adopted.
Representative Don Edwards of California proposed House Joint Resolution 554 in the 95th Congress. The United States House of Representatives passed it on March 2, 1978, by a 289–127 vote, with 18 not voting. The United States Senate passed it on August 22, 1978, by a 67–32 vote, with 1 not voting. With that, the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. The Congress included in the text of the proposed amendment that included the requirement that ratification by three-fourths (38) of the states be completed within seven years following its passage by the Congress (i.e., August 22, 1985) in order for the proposed amendment to become part of the Constitution. By placing the ratification deadline in the text of the proposed amendment, the deadline could not be extended, as had been done regarding the Equal Rights Amendment.
Ratification by the legislatures of at least 38 of the 50 states by August 22, 1985 was necessary for the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment to become a part of the Constitution. During the seven-year period specified by Congress it was ratified by only 16 states and so failed to be adopted. The amendment was ratified by the following states:
Had it been adopted, this proposed amendment would have given Washington, D.C. full representation in both houses of the Congress. Also, this proposed amendment would have repealed the Twenty-third Amendment. The Twenty-third Amendment does not allow Washington, D.C. to have more electoral votes "than the least populous State," nor does it grant Washington, D.C. any role in the election of a President by the House of Representatives (or that of the Vice President by the Senate). In contrast, this proposed amendment would have provided Washington, D.C. full participation in the Electoral College. Finally, the proposed amendment would have also allowed the Council of the District of Columbia, the Congress, or the people of Washington D.C. (depending on how this proposed amendment would have been interpreted) to decide whether to ratify any proposed amendment to the Constitution, or to apply to the Congress for a convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution, just as a state's legislature can according to the Constitutional amendment process. The amendment would neither have made Washington, D.C. a state, nor affected Congress's authority over it.
Belaid Abdessalam
Belaid Abdessalam () (20 July 1928 – 27 June 2020) was an Algerian politician. He served as Prime Minister of Algeria. He served as minister from 8 July 1992 until he resigned in 21 August 1993.
Abdessalam was born in Dehemcha, near Sétif, Algeria on 20 July 1928. He died on 27 June 2020, aged 91.
Marcy Kaptur
Marcia Carolyn "Marcy" Kaptur (born June 17, 1946) is an American politician. He is the U.S. Representative representing Ohio. She has served since 1983. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Kaptur endorsed Bernie Sanders for Democratic nomination in 2016.
Federalism in the United States
Federalism in the United States is the relationship between the state governments and the federal government. This relationship is set out in the United States Constitution. The Constitution says which powers the federal government has, and which powers belong to the states. The goal of federalism is to create a balance of power, so neither the states or the federal government can get too powerful.
When America was a colony of the British Empire, it was ruled by the government of King George III. Many American colonists thought this government was corrupt and did not care about the colonists' rights.
The Founding Fathers of the United States started to believe in an idea they called republicanism. This idea said that the people in a country should be able to choose their government. It said that the government's job was to protect people's natural rights, and if the government did not do this, the people had the right to overthrow it. By 1775, these ideas were common in colonial America.
In the 1760s and 1770s, the British government began passing laws that forced the colonists to pay taxes on items like printed materials and things that were made outside the colonies. To many Americans, these were examples of corruption and unfairness in the government. The government was making them pay taxes, but the colonists had no say in what tax laws were passed, or even what their money was spent on.
In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began. The next year, the colonies passed the United States Declaration of Independence, making them the new country of the United States. By 1783, thanks to help from France, Spain, and some Native American tribes, the United States won the war and its independence from the British Empire.
However, British rule had made most Americans distrust federal governments. Many Americans did not like the thought that people far away from them could make rules about their lives, like the British government had. They saw government as the biggest threat to their freedom. Because of this, the United States' first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, gave most of the power to the states. The Articles created a federal government, but gave it very little power. For example, the Articles allowed the Continental Congress to sign treaties and declare war, but it could not raise taxes to pay for an army. Also, all major decisions required all of the state governments to agree. This made it very difficult for the federal government to get anything done.
The Founding Fathers and regular Americans began to see that the Confederation government was not working well. Some of the Founding Fathers began to suggest federalism as a solution to the problems with the Articles of Confederation.
Many more Americans began to support federalism after Shays' Rebellion of 1786-1787. Shays' Rebellion started out as a protest by poor farmers in western Massachusetts, and ended up as an armed rebellion. Neither the federal government or the state government had enough soldiers or money to pay for an army that could stop the rebellion. Merchants in Massachusetts had to pay for a private army to stop the rebellion. Also, during the Rebellion, Massachusetts' state government took away people's right to habeas corpus (so they could keep people in jail without a trial) and their right to say bad things about the government. Many Americans began to realize that under the Articles of Confederation, their government was unable to protect them or their rights. This was not the republican government they had fought for.
In 1787, fifty-five delegates met at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. There, they created ideas about a new type of government, called federalism. In this type of government, they decided:
The delegates at the Constitutional Convention wrote a new Constitution. The last part of the Constitution, Article 7, said that nine states would have to ratify (approve) the Constitution for it to go into effect. The Federalist movement started working to get the Constitution ratified.