Jerry Nadler: “it is a stain on our national honor that the citizens of our Capital City are disenfranchised without any votes in…”

“it is a stain on our national honor that the citizens of our Capital City are disenfranchised without any votes in Congress. We presume to lecture other nations on the importance of democracy; but today we are being put to our own test, and we must not fail. Now, speakers on the other side say that this bill is unconstitutional. They say, and they point out correctly, that the Constitution says that the House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second year by the people of the several States. Washington, they say, isn't a State. QED. That's the end of the subject. But no, it isn't. It is not the end of the subject. The fact is, article III, section 2 says the judicial power, Federal jurisdiction shall extend to controversies between citizens of different States. Controversies between citizens of different States, that is the basis for jurisdiction for Federal lawsuits, some Federal lawsuits, many Federal lawsuits. Well, what about a controversy when someone from the District of Columbia sues someone from Virginia or New York or Pennsylvania? Well, in 1805, the Supreme Court ruled that diversity jurisdiction did not exist between a citizen of the District of Columbia and a citizen of Virginia, in the case of Hepburn v. Ellzey, because the District of Columbia was not a State.”