LETTER FROM DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS

April 19, 2004

The Hon. John Ashcroft
Attorney General of the United States
United States Department of Justice
Constitution Ave., N.W. and 9th & 10th Sts., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

I am writing to bring to your attention a recent decision of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the "Commission") of the Organization of American States (the "OAS"). The OAS Commission has held that the denial of Congressional voting rights to otherwise eligible citizens of the United States who are residents of the District of Columbia violates Articles II and XX of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man under the OAS Charter. See Statehood Solidarity v. United States, Case No. 11.204 (decided Dec. 29, 2003) (www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/2003eng/ USA.1120.htm). The Charter provisions at issue provide for equality before the law and for participation in the national legislature of one’s country through duly elected representatives.

The Commission noted in its decision that "according to the information available, no other federal state in the Western Hemisphere denies the residents of its federal capital the right to vote for representatives in their national legislature" ( 108). Further, the Commission took note that the United States courts have "specifically concluded that the historical rationale for the District Clause in the U.S. Constitution would not today require the exclusion of District residents from the Congressional franchise” and that “denial of the franchise is not necessary for the effective functioning of the seat of government" ( 106).

The Commission concluded that the Declaration and its underlying principles mandate . . . "that the State extend to the Petitioners the opportunity to exercise a meaningful influence on . . . matters considered by their governing legislature, and that any limitations and restrictions on those rights are justified by the State as reasonable, objective and proportionate, taking due account of the context of its political system" (110). The Commission found that the denial of the franchise to District residents is not in accord with these fundamental rights.

The Commission's decision provides further proof that the denial of the Congressional franchise to United States citizens residing in the District of Columbia is an historical artifact that has long outlived its original purpose to protect the federal government from undue domination by one or another State. The ban on a Congressional franchise for the residents of the District imposes substantial and irreparable harm upon the people of the Nation's capital by relegating them to the status of steerage-class citizens. Nothing in the history of the drafting and adoption of the Constitution suggests that the Founders intended to treat United States citizens resident in the District in so fundamentally different a manner from their fellow citizens resident elsewhere in the country.

I respectfully urge you to direct your Office of Legal Counsel to work with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Congressman Tom Davis and the leadership of the House and Senate in fashioning a constitutionally acceptable and equitable redress for this longstanding and intolerable grievance.

Sincerely,

 

Anthony A. Williams

Mayor

cc: The Hon. Tom Davis
Chairman, House Committee on Government Reform
United States House of Representatives
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Hon. Eleanor Holmes Norton
District of Columbia
United States House of Representatives
2136 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Timothy Cooper
Executive Director, Worldrights
Tel: 202.361.0989
Fax: 202.244-9479
Email: Worldright@aol.com
www.world-rights.org