Discover Top Posts Tagged with #dc statehood

DC needs statehood NOW! #StackTheSenate

The former Democratic presidential nominee also urged progressives to seriously consider new ideas, including expanding the court.

Paul Blumenthal at HuffPost:

Former Vice President Kamala Harris criticized the Supreme Court on Wednesday for allowing states to eliminate Black-majority districts and claiming their only motivation was partisanship. “What they have done with this decision, by saying that the politics of redistricting is okay, is they are backdooring racism through politics,” Harris said on a call with the progressive nonprofit Emerge. “What they are doing is intentionally about trying to suppress the voice of the people.” Efforts to eliminate Black-majority congressional seats have swept through the South following the court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais. That ruling, backed by all six Republican-appointed justices, gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by stating that partisan considerations trumped efforts that result in racial discrimination. The only way the act could still be successfully deployed in court is if plaintiffs can prove intentional discrimination, according to the decision.

[...] Those who oppose this rollback of the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement must not only protest and march in opposition, but also consider “bold” political reforms that “may be about assuming some risk,” Harris said.

“Let’s invite ideas, for example, that are about Supreme Court reform, including the notion of expanding the court,” the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee said. “Let’s invite a discussion about how do we push for statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C.; how are we thinking about the Electoral College.”

[...] Those calls for taking on the Supreme Court have only escalated since the court’s decision in Callais. While stopping short of endorsing expansion of the court, Harris’ statement was a signal to the Black community to drop its long-held view that the court can act as a protector of rights and instead look to taking on the court as a political actor engaged in a regressive project to eliminate those hard-won rights from the 20th century. The Callais decision is also part of an effort by Republicans to “cheat” in order to win the 2026 midterms, Harris said.

Kamala Harris is absolutely right in calling out SCOTUS’s racist Callais ruling for what it is: a tool for “backdooring racism.” Harris also gave an endorsement for SCOTUS reforms, such as court expansion and term limits, DC and Puerto Rico statehood, and Electoral College abolishment.

#Kamala Harris #SCOTUS #Louisiana v. Callais #Racism #Redistricting Wars #Redistricting #SCOTUS Reform #SCOTUS Expansion #DC Statehood #Puerto Rico Statehood #Electoral College

It's long past time for America to either grant its territories greater autonomy, or statehood (the choice, of course, should be left to the residents of those territories).

Territories of mostly non-white people with second class citizenship are a relic of the colonial past.

Personally, I hope for statehood. I think Old Glory would look pretty damn fine with 56 stars!

FYI, the current populations of the US territories (plus DC) which do not have statehood, and what their Congressional representation would be, is (approximately) as follows:

Puerto Rico: 3, 239, 985 people. Four Congressional Representatives, 2 Senators.

DC: 689, 545 people. 1 Congressional Representative, 2 Senators.

Guam: 168,171 people. 1 Congressional Representative, 2 Senators.

American Samoa: 46,531 people. 1 Congressional Representative, 2 Senators.

Northern Mariana Islands: 44,044 people. 1 Congressional Representative, 2 Senators.

US Virgin Islands: 84,656 people. 1 Congressional Representative, 2 Senators.

Population is obviously approximate, as it changes daily. These are simply the first numbers that came up on Google when I searched today, Sunday evening on October 27th 2024.

The US currently has approximately 1 Congressional Representative per 747,000 people, and every state gets two Senators.

It has been argued that certain territories are too small to be states. However Puerto Rico's population outnumbers the states of Nevada, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nebraska, Idaho, West Virginia, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Montana, Rhode Island, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming, per Wikipedia. DC outnumbers Vermont and Wyoming.

Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands are smaller by population than any current state. However, some historic states were smaller than at least some of these when they joined.

#US #Politics #US Territories #Colonialism #Citizenship #Voting Rights #Puerto Rico Statehood #DC Statehood #Guam Statehood #American Samoa Statehood #US Virgin Islands Statehood #Northern Mariana Islands Statehood

Congress could force D.C. to cut $1.1 billion out of its local budget, which could lead to cuts in services and layoffs.

From the 51st

In your elementary school history class, you probably learned about how colonists protested taxation without representation in the lead-up to the American Revolution. But did you know that in the present day residents of Washington DC pay higher taxes than almost anyone else in the nation without voting representation in Congress?

Congress has messed with DC’s laws and budget for a long time (in part because DC is left-leaning and was for a long time majority Black) and this week they want to blatantly steal DC’s money and keep residents from using it for things like schools, recreation centers, emergency services, and more.

To be clear: this is money DC has already collected through taxes on restaurants and other things. The money exists. Congress just doesn’t want to let local government we elected actually use it.

It doesn’t get more “issues brought up at the Continental Congress” than that.

So how can you help DC?

The continuing resolution for the budget already went to the House. It goes to the Senate next.

If you live in another state in the US, call your senators and tell them you oppose the cuts to DC’s budget. DC residents don’t have senators to call and senators from other states won’t take non-constituents seriously, so we’re counting on you to call on our behalf.

You can call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and they’ll connect you to your senator.

If you’re in DC or want to ally with DC, you can get involved with the FreeDC project. There’s a Maryland and Virginia allies zoom call tomorrow (March 12th) if you’re interested in signing up!

If you live outside the US and want a way to help, you can reblog this to your followers in the US.

Thank you for reading!

#us politics #washington dc #washington dc politics #dc statehood #free dc