Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution
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The Twenty-third Amendment (Amendment XXIII) to the
The Constitution provides that each state receives presidential electors equal to the combined number of seats it has in the Senate and the House of Representatives. As the District of Columbia is not a state, it was not entitled to any electors before the adoption of the Twenty-third Amendment. As early as 1888, some journalists and members of Congress favored a constitutional amendment to grant the district electoral votes. Still, such an amendment did not win widespread support until the rise of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. The amendment was not seen as a partisan measure; ratification of the amendment was endorsed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and both major party candidates in the 1960 presidential election. The amendment's ratification made the district the only entity other than the states to have any representation in the Electoral College.
The first presidential election in which the District of Columbia participated was the
Text
Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.[2]
Background
The United States Constitution's rules for the composition of the House of Representatives and the Senate explicitly grant seats to states and no other entities. Similarly, electors (i.e., members of the
In 1888, a bill to amend the Constitution was introduced in Congress by Senator
Proposal and ratification
Adoption by the Congress
Senate Joint Resolution–39, which would eventually become the Twenty-third Amendment, was introduced in 1959 by Tennessee Democratic senator Estes Kefauver. His proposal would provide for the emergency functioning of Congress and continuity of the legislative process by authorizing governors to fill vacancies in the House of Representatives "on any date that the total number of vacancies ... exceeds half of the authorized membership." The governor's appointive authority would have been limited to 60 days, and the appointee would have served until a successor was elected in a special election. The bill was amended twice on the Senate floor. One added provision, proposed by New York Republican Kenneth Keating, would grant the District of Columbia electoral votes in national elections and non-voting delegate(s) to the House. The other, offered by Florida Democrat Spessard Holland, would eliminate the poll tax or other property qualification as a prerequisite for voting in federal elections. The Senate passed SJR–39 in this three-amendment form on February 2, 1960, by a vote of 70–18, and sent it to the House.
The House Judiciary Committee, after setting aside the anti-poll tax and House emergency appointment provisions of SJR–39, sent its own proposal, House Joint Resolution–757, devoted solely to presidential electors for the District of Columbia, to the House floor for consideration. This was adopted in the House without amendment, by voice vote, on June 14, 1960. Then, by unanimous consent, the text of HJR–757 was inserted into SJR–39, the original language of which was removed. The Senate adopted the revised resolution by voice vote on June 16, 1960.[8][9][10]
Ratification by the states
To become valid as part of the Constitution, the Twenty-third Amendment needed to be ratified by the legislatures of three-quarters of the states (38, following the admission of Alaska and Hawaii to the union in 1959) within seven years from its submission to the states by Congress (June 16, 1967). President Eisenhower, along with both major party candidates in the 1960 presidential election, Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy from Massachusetts, endorsed the proposal. Amendment supporters ran an effective ratification campaign, mobilizing persons in almost every state to press for its approval.[7]
The following states ratified the amendment:[11]
- Hawaii – June 23, 1960
- Massachusetts – August 22, 1960
- New Jersey – December 19, 1960
- New York – January 17, 1961
- California – January 19, 1961
- Oregon – January 27, 1961
- Maryland – January 30, 1961
- Idaho – January 31, 1961
- Maine – January 31, 1961
- Minnesota – January 31, 1961
- New Mexico – February 1, 1961
- Nevada – February 2, 1961
- Montana – February 6, 1961
- Colorado – February 8, 1961
- Washington – February 9, 1961
- West Virginia – February 9, 1961
- Alaska – February 10, 1961
- Wyoming – February 13, 1961
- South Dakota – February 14, 1961 (date of filing in Office of Secretary of State of South Dakota)
- Delaware – February 20, 1961
- Utah – February 21, 1961
- Wisconsin – February 21, 1961
- Pennsylvania – February 28, 1961
- Indiana – March 3, 1961
- North Dakota – March 3, 1961
- Tennessee – March 6, 1961
- Michigan – March 8, 1961
- Connecticut – March 9, 1961
- Arizona – March 10, 1961
- Illinois – March 14, 1961
- Nebraska – March 15, 1961
- Vermont – March 15, 1961
- Iowa – March 16, 1961
- Missouri – March 20, 1961
- Oklahoma – March 21, 1961
- Rhode Island – March 22, 1961
- Kansas – March 29, 1961
- Ohio – March 29, 1961
Ratification was completed on March 29, 1961, 9 months and 12 days after being proposed by Congress. The following states subsequently ratified the amendment:
- 39. New Hampshire – March 30, 1961 (Date in the official notice; preceded by ratification on March 29, 1961, as the 37th state to ratify, which was annulled and then repeated later that same day.)
- 40. Alabama – April 11, 2002
On April 3, 1961, John L. Moore, Administrator of General Services, certified that the amendment had been adopted by the requisite number of States and had become a part of the Constitution.
The amendment was rejected by Arkansas on January 24, 1961.[12] Nine states took no action on the amendment: Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, North Carolina, and Virginia.
Implementing legislation
The Amendment granted Congress the power to determine how the District of Columbia's electors should be appointed. In October 1961, Congress enacted legislation to amend the DC Code by providing that the District's electors should be appointed based on a popular vote, with all electors awarded to the presidential ticket prevailing in the ballot.[13]
In 1973, Congress enacted the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, delegating to the Council of the District of Columbia certain legislative powers over the District (subject to Congressional override). The DC Council subsequently passed legislation affecting the appointment of DC's presidential electors, most notably by adopting the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact in 2010.[14]
Political impact
While perceived as politically neutral and only somewhat liberal-leaning at the time of passage in 1961, the district swung dramatically toward the Democratic Party in the years after passage. African Americans voted in more significant numbers than they had in the 1940s and 1950s with the clearing away of restrictions on the vote, and their share of the district electorate increased; according to the
Unaddressed by the Twenty-third Amendment were the parallel issues of
See also
- District of Columbia statehood movement
- District of Columbia voting rights
- District of Columbia retrocession
- Political party strength in Washington, D.C.
Notes
- ^ The lone exception was a faithless elector in the 2000 election who refused to cast a vote.
- United States Government Printing Office. "PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS FOR D. C. TWENTY-THIRD AMENDMENT"(PDF). gpo.gov.
- ^ "U.S. Senate: Constitution of the United States". senate.gov. June 2, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- ^ Vose, p. 112.
- ^ "D.C.: Chasing Full Voting Rights Since 1801," Auerbach, Stuart. Washington Post, August 23, 1978
- ^ a b c d Vose, p. 114–115.
- ^ a b c Vose, p. 116.
- ^ Sula P. Richardson (August 12, 2003). "House Vacancies: Proposed Constitutional Amendments for Filling Them Due to National Emergencies". CRS Report for Congress, RL32031. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
- ^ Breneman, Lory (2000). Tamara Tamara (ed.). Senate Manual Containing the Standing Rules, Orders, Laws and Resolutions Affecting the Business of the United States Senate (Senate Document 106-1 ed.). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 959. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
- ISBN 1851094334. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
- ^ "THE CONSTITUTION of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION, Centennial Edition, INTERIM EDITION: ANALYSIS OF CASES DECIDED BY THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES TO JUNE 26, 2013" (PDF). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 2013. p. 42. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
- ProQuest 141591074.
- , enacted October 4, 1961
- ^ "D.C. Law 18-274: National Popular Vote Interstate Agreement Act of 2010". Retrieved May 8, 2021.
- ^ "District of Columbia Home Rule Act". Government of the District of Columbia. February 1999. Retrieved May 27, 2008.
- ^ "84 Stat. 845 - An Act to establish a Commission on the Organization of the Government of the District of Columbia and to provide for a Delegate to the House of Representatives from the District of Columbia". gpo.gov. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- ^ 124 Congressional Record 5272–5273
- ^ 124 Congressional Record 27260
- ^ a b "The Failed Amendments". usconstitution.net. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- ^ Vose, p. 120–125.
References
- Constitution of the United States.
- Kilman, Johnny and George Costello (Eds). (2000). The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation.
- Vose, Clement (1978). "When District of Columbia Representation Collides with the Constitutional Amendment Institution". Publius. 9 (1). Oxford University Press: 105–125. JSTOR 3329772.