Resolution Number: 2012-C033
Title: Support Voting Rights and Representation for the District of Columbia
Legislative Action Taken: Concurred as Substituted
Final Text:

Resolved, That the 77th General Convention recognize that:

  1. The United States has been a vigorous human rights advocate for many years, opposing arbitrary restrictions on the right to vote and insisting on fairly conducted elections for legislative representatives;
  2. As a matter of theology, the Church supports equal treatment of the fundamental rights of similarly situated citizens, including the right to vote for elected representatives who decide tax and military service obligations, as well as deciding the benefits of citizenship;
  3. The U.S. Constitution provides for Congress to exercise exclusive legislation for a federal district, Art. I, Sec. 8., Cl. 17, to assure federal military control rather than rely on state militias. Not only has this military rationale been obsolete since the Civil War, it does not justify Congress denying residents of the District of Columbia voting representatives;
  4. Congress has disenfranchised over 600,000 D.C. residents from having representation in the legislature that has exclusive jurisdiction over their city by depriving them of electing Senators or a voting member of the House of Representatives;
  5. District of Columbia residents pay U.S. taxes and serve in the military. They have suffered casualties in every major war since Congress established the district;
  6. The District of Columbia is the only capital of any democracy in the world where residents are deprived of the right to vote in the legislature;
  7. Failure to provide D.C. residents the right to vote in congressional elections has resulted in taxation without representation, is racist in effect, and damages U.S. credibility as a human rights advocate; and be it further

Resolved, That the Convention support the right of District of Columbia residents to enjoy the same rights as every other American citizen, including to right to elect voting members of Congress, whether provision of this right is by retrocession, by statehood, by constitutional amendment, or by congressional legislation; and be it further

Resolved, That the Office of Government Relations is instructed to work in support of appropriate measures to secure the right of D.C. residents to elect voting members of Congress, including appropriate interim steps to increase local autonomy; and be it further

Resolved, That in keeping with our Baptismal covenant to respect the dignity of every human being, U.S. dioceses, bishops, clergy and lay people are urged to support appropriate measures to secure the right to elect voting members of Congress to residents of the District of Columbia.

Citation: General Convention, Journal of the General Convention of...The Episcopal Church, Indianapolis, 2012 (New York: General Convention, 2012), pp. 150-151.

Legislative History

Author: Diocese of Washington
Originating House: House of Deputies
Originating Committee: National and International Concerns

House of Deputies

The House of Deputies Committee on National and International Concerns presented its Report #8 on Resolution C033 (Endorsing Statehood for the District of Columbia) and moved adoption of a substitute.

Original Text of Resolution

(C033)

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That the 77th General Convention, recognize that the Church has long been a moral voice in support of the civil and human rights of all people; and be it further

Resolved, That the Convention acknowledge the Baptismal promise to “strive for justice and respect the dignity of every human being”; and be it further

Resolved, That the Convention recognize, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and that one of the most fundamental of those rights is “the right to take part in the government of his country”; and be it further

Resolved, That the Convention recognize that this right to self-determination is explicitly stated in the Declaration of Independence’s statement that to secure their rights, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the governed,” and in the preamble to the Constitution; and be it further

Resolved, That the Convention recognize that the people of the District of Columbia have been denied this right to self-determination for over two hundred years; and be it further

Resolved, That the Convention recognize that as a constitutional union of states, full rights in United States of America go to citizens of states, and that the people of the District of Columbia, in petitioning to hold a statehood constitutional convention, electing delegates, writing a constitution and approving that constitution for the State of New Columbia, have said that they want the State of New Columbia to be admitted to the union; and be it further

Resolved, That the Convention support the right of the people of the District of Columbia to enjoy the same rights as every other American, including the right to self-determination through statehood, and urge Congress to admit the State of New Columbia to the union; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the General Convention forward this resolution to the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church to take such action as is necessary to implement this resolution.

Committee Substitute

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That the 77th General Convention recognize that:

  1. The United States has been a vigorous human rights advocate for many years, opposing arbitrary restrictions on the right to vote and insisting on fairly conducted elections for legislative representatives;
  2. As a matter of theology, the Church supports equal treatment of the fundamental rights of similarly situated citizens, including the right to vote for elected representatives who decide tax and military service obligations, as well as deciding the benefits of citizenship;
  3. The U.S. Constitution provides for Congress to exercise exclusive legislation for a federal district, Art. I, Sec. 8., Cl. 17, to assure federal military control rather than rely on state militias. Not only has this military rationale been obsolete since the Civil War, it does not justify Congress denying residents of the District of Columbia voting representatives;
  4. Congress has disenfranchised over 600,000 D.C. residents from having representation in the legislature that has exclusive jurisdiction over their city by depriving them of electing Senators or a voting member of the House of Representatives;
  5. District of Columbia residents pay U.S. taxes and serve in the military. They have suffered casualties in every major war since Congress established the district;
  6. The District of Columbia is the only capital of any democracy in the world where residents are deprived of the right to vote in the legislature;
  7. Failure to provide D.C. residents the right to vote in congressional elections has resulted in taxation without representation, is racist in effect, and damages U.S. credibility as a human rights advocate; and be it further

Resolved, That the Convention support the right of District of Columbia residents to enjoy the same rights as every other American citizen, including to right to elect voting members of Congress, whether provision of this right is by retrocession, by statehood, by constitutional amendment, or by congressional legislation; and be it further

Resolved, That the Office of Government Relations is instructed to work in support of appropriate measures to secure the right of D.C. residents to elect voting members of Congress, including appropriate interim steps to increase local autonomy; and be it further

Resolved, that in keeping with our Baptismal covenant to respect the dignity of every human being, U.S. dioceses, bishops, clergy and lay people are urged to support appropriate measures to secure the right to elect voting members of Congress to residents of the District of Columbia.

Motion carried

Substitute resolution adopted

(Communicated to the House of Bishops in HD Message #46)

House of Bishops

The House of Bishops Committee on National and International Concerns presented its Report #3 on HD Message #46 on Resolution C033 (Endorsing Statehood for the District of Columbia) and moved concurrence.

Motion carried

The House concurred

(Communicated to the House of Deputies in HB Message # 96)

Resolution Concurred by Both Houses, July 7.

Abstract:   The 77th General Convention supports measures to secure for District of Columbia residents full citizenship rights, notably the right to elect voting members of Congress.