Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1 — Seat Of Government Doctrine

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Article I, Section 8, Clause 17:

[The Congress shall have Power . . . ] To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;–And . . .

There seems to have been no consideration, at least none recorded, given at the Convention or in the ratifying conventions to the question of the governance of the citizens of the District.[1](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn1art1 " The objections raised in the ratifying conventions and elsewhere seemed to have consisted of prediction of the perils to the Nation of setting up the National Government in such a place. 3 Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States 1215, 1216 (1833). ") James Madison in the Federalist Papers did assume that the inhabitants “will have had their voice in the election of the government which is to exercise authority over them, as a municipal legislature for all local purposes, derived from their own suffrages, will of course be allowed them. . . .” [2](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn2art1 " The Federalist No. 43 (James Madison). ") Although there was some dispute about the constitutional propriety of permitting local residents a measure of “home rule,” to use the recent term,[3](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn3art1 " Such a contention was cited and rebutted in 3 Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States 1218 (1833). ") almost from the first there were local elections provided for. In 1802, the District was divided into five divisions, in some of which the governing officials were elected; an elected mayor was provided in 1820. District residents elected some of those who governed them until this form of government was swept away in the aftermath of financial scandals in 1874[4](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn4art1 " Act of May 3, 1802, 2 Stat. 195; Act of May 15, 1820, 3 Stat. 583; Act of February 21, 1871, 16 Stat. 419; Act of June 20, 1874, 18 Stat. 116. The engrossing story of the postwar changes in the government is related in W. Whyte, The Uncivil War: Washington During the Reconstruction (1958). ") and replaced with a presidentially appointed Commission in 1878.[5](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn5art1 " Act of June 11, 1878, 20 Stat. 103. ") The Commission lasted until 1967 when it was replaced by an appointed Mayor-Commissioner and an appointed city council.[6](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn6art1 " Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967, 32 Fed. Reg. 11699, reprinted as appendix to District of Columbia Code, Title I. ") In recent years, Congress provided for a limited form of self-government in the District, with the major offices filled by election.[7](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn7art1 " District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, Pub. L. No. 93-198, 87 Stat. 774. ") District residents vote for President and Vice President[8](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn8art1 " Twenty-third Amendment. ") and elect a nonvoting delegate to Congress.[9](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn9art1 " Pub. L. No. 91-405, 84 Stat. 848, D.C. Code, § 1-291. ") An effort by constitutional amendment to confer voting representation in the House and Senate failed of ratification.[10](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn10art1 " H.J. Res. 554, 95th Congress, passed the House on March 2, 1978, and the Senate on August 22, 1978, but only 16 states had ratified before the expiration of the proposal after seven years. ")

Constitutionally, it appears that Congress is neither required to provide for a locally elected government[11](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn11art1 " Loughborough v. Blake, 18 U.S. (5 Wheat.) 317 (1820); Heald v. District of Columbia, 259 U.S. 114 (1922). ") nor precluded from delegating its powers over the District to an elective local government.[12](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn12art1 " District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., 346 U.S. 100 (1953). The case upheld the validity of ordinances enacted by the District governing bodies in 1872 and 1873 prohibiting racial discrimination in places of public accommodations. ") The Court has indicated that the “exclusive” jurisdiction granted was meant to exclude any question of state power over the area and was not intended to require Congress to exercise all powers itself.[13](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn13art1 " 346 U.S. at 109–10. See also Thompson v. Lessee of Carroll, 63 U.S. (22 How.) 422 (1860); Stoutenburgh v. Hennick, 129 U.S. 141 (1889). ")

Chief Justice John Marshall for the Court held in Hepburn v. Ellzey[14](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn14art1 " 6 U.S. (2 Cr.) 445 (1805); see also Sere v. Pitot, 10 U.S. (6 Cr.) 332 (1810); New Orleans v. Winter, 14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) 91 (1816). The District was held to be a state within the terms of a treaty. Geofroy v. Riggs, 133 U.S. 258 (1890). ") that the District of Columbia was not a state within the meaning of the Diversity Jurisdiction Clause of Article III. This view, adhered to for nearly a century and a half,[15](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn15art1 " Barney v. City of Baltimore, 73 U.S. (6 Wall.) 280 (1868); Hooe v. Jamieson, 166 U.S. 395 (1897); Hooe v. Werner, 166 U.S. 399 (1897). ") was overturned in 1949, the Court upholding the constitutionality of a 1940 statute authorizing federal courts to take jurisdiction of nonfederal controversies between residents of the District of Columbia and the citizens of a state.[16](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn16art1 " National Mutual Ins. Co. v. Tidewater Transfer Co., 337 U.S. 582 (1949). ") The decision was by a 5-4 division, but the five in the majority disagreed among themselves on the reasons. Three thought the statute to be an appropriate exercise of the power of Congress to legislate for the District of Columbia pursuant to this clause without regard to Article III.[17](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn17art1 " 337 U.S. at 588–600 (Justices Jackson, Black, and Burton). ") Two others thought that Hepburn v. Ellzey had been erroneously decided and would have overruled it.[18](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn18art1 " 337 U.S. at 604 (Justices Rutledge and Murphy). The dissents were by Chief Justice Vinson, id. at 626, joined by Justice Douglas and by Justice Frankfurter, id. at 646, joined by Justice Reed. ") But six Justices rejected the former rationale and seven Justices rejected the latter one; since five Justices agreed, however, that the statute was constitutional, it was sustained.

It is not disputed that the District is a part of the United States and that its residents are entitled to all the guarantees of the United States Constitution including the privilege of trial by jury[19](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn19art1 " Callan v. Wilson, 127 U.S. 540 (1888); Capital Traction Co. v. Hof, 174 U.S. 1 (1899). ") and of presentment by a grand jury.[20](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn20art1 " United States v. Moreland, 258 U.S. 433 (1922). ") Legislation restrictive of liberty and property in the District must find justification in facts adequate to support like legislation by a state in the exercise of its police power.[21](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn21art1 " Wright v. Davidson, 181 U.S. 371, 384 (1901); cf. Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, 261 U.S. 525 (1923), overruled in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379 (1937). ")

Congress possesses over the District of Columbia the blended powers of a local and national legislature.[22](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn22art1 " Kendall v. United States ex rel. Stokes, 37 U.S. (12 Pet.) 524, 619 (1838); Shoemaker v. United States, 147 U.S. 282, 300 (1893); Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers v. United States, 286 U.S. 427, 435 (1932); O’Donoghue v. United States, 289 U.S. 516, 518 (1933). ") This fact means that in some respects ordinary constitutional restrictions do not operate; thus, for example, in creating local courts of local jurisdiction in the District, Congress acts pursuant to its legislative powers under Clause 17 and need not create courts that comply with Article III court requirements.[23](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/seat-of-government-doctrine#fn23art1 " In the District of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act of 1970, Pub. L. 91-358, 111, 84 Stat. 475, D.C. Code, §