Constitutional Law And Twenty Third Amendment
The District of Columbia was set up to be the seat of the new government. It was not meant to be a residential center, and initially it had a population of 5000 only. It was not a state, but a federal district. It did not require a local government. Therefore, people residing there had no voting rights in the federal government. However, the population kept growing steadily, and by 1960, it had around 760,000 inhabitants. |
This large population gave concern to the people that though they were a large number, they were not better off than states with a smaller population who had voting rights. Moreover, as citizens with no voting rights, they still had to pay taxes and were subject to serve in the military. That did not sound fair to the people residing there.
So, there was ample cause for an amendment. Whenever the Constitution is changed or new clauses added, it is called an amendment or a constitutional law. So, on June 17, 1960, the Congress proposed the Amendment, and it was approved on March 29, 1961. 38 states and two more later on ratified the amendment. The whole process took 285 days.
The amendment allows for a number of electors equal to the number of Senators and Representatives in the Congress just as though the District were a State. However, the Amendment did not make the District of Columbia a state. It only gave the citizens the right to vote as though they were from a state. Moreover, it also does not grant full representation in Congress.
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