The District of Columbia

Article I lets Congress exercise exclusive legislation over a district, not exceeding ten miles square, that becomes the seat of government, so that the national capital would not depend on any single state. The Residence Act of 1790 placed it on the Potomac River, and the government moved there in 1800. The land Virginia contributed was returned to it in 1846, leaving the present district on land ceded by Maryland. The city of Washington and the District became one government in 1871.

The Twenty-third Amendment, ratified in 1961, gave the District three electoral votes in presidential elections. Since 1971 it has elected a nonvoting delegate to the House, and since the Home Rule Act of 1973 it has elected a mayor and a 13-member council. Congress keeps the power to review and overturn local laws, controls the District's budget, and attaches riders on local matters, and federal officials control the National Guard and some law enforcement. In August 2025 the President placed the city's police under temporary federal direction and deployed Guard troops, citing crime.

The District's roughly 700,000 residents pay federal taxes but have no voting representatives in Congress, a grievance reflected in the slogan taxation without representation on local license plates. The House passed bills to admit most of the District as the state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth in 2020 and 2021, but the Senate did not act. Supporters of statehood say residents deserve equal representation, while opponents argue that the Constitution intended a federal district outside any state, that statehood would require an amendment, and that retrocession of residential areas to Maryland is an alternative.