In , President Jimmy Carter appointed her to chair the U. During that time she was a vocal anti-apartheid in South Africa activist and co-founded the Free South African movement with a sit-in at the South Afican Embassy.
But the suppression of rights in her hometown was always at the front of her mind. When she first came to Congress in she immediately got to work on a DC statehood bill in the House. But even with a Democrat-controlled House, in her bill was overwhelmingly voted down to , with 40 percent of House Democrats voting against the measure, along with all but one Republican.
At the time, statehood was such an unrealistic possibility that to merely get a floor vote, even if it was soundly rejected, was nonetheless spun as a win, a necessary first step before eventual success. In September , a few months after then-President Barack Obama officially endorsed statehood for DC, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a hearing about creating a new state out of DC—the first since the vote.
But it never got further than that since it stood no chance in the Republican-controlled House. The case for DC statehood is not hard to parse. And that disenfranchisement predominantly affects people of color—DC has historically been a majority Black city. Beyond congressional representation, the city lacks the same authority as other local governments across the country. That issue has only come up a handful of times—most notably in and when Congress voted to block the District from using local funds to cover abortion services, and again in when DC voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.
While Norton has worked to keep the issue alive in Congress, statehood has gotten a bigger national boost in recent years thanks to a new generation of young activists.
But like most moral and legal issues these days, partisan politics have completely swallowed the debate. For the Republican Party, statehood is a line in the sand. These arguments, at least on the House floor, have provoked the otherwise collected and even-keeled Norton to sometimes lose her cool.
In one of the recent House debates on statehood, Norton had to scream at Rep. Guy Reschenthaler R-Penn. But she admits what happens on the House floor, stays there. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who Norton likens to the Southern Democrats in who opposed statehood in that first House vote, has firmly planted his feet against it , while a few other Democratic senators have been conspicuously silent on the issue.
If you ask Norton how, exactly, the Democrats plan on abolishing the filibuster, she explains it with a confidence as if it has already happened: First, the Democrats are going to expand their majority in the House and Senate in the midterms. And then the DC statehood bill will promptly pass and be signed by the president. But all that is riding on Senate Democrats and their ability to use their slight majority to their benefit—especially when it comes to voting rights, including statehood.
Unless Manchin can be flipped on both the filibuster and statehood, the future of DC rests squarely on the unforeseeable outcome of the midterms—which might not go the way Norton thinks it will.
But she refuses to accept that alternative. And, she shared her hopes that more Georgetown Law students will join the fight. I hope that will lead Georgetown Law students to proselytize for D. Close Alert. Statehood Push. Search submit. Romanoff D vs. Burnes D vs. Scarane D vs. Witzke R vs. Collins R vs. Tarver D vs. Warnock D vs. Carter D vs. Lieberman D vs. Grayson R vs. Buckley L vs. Ossoff D vs. Tomlinson D vs.
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Write Us Your feedback to us. Eleanor Holmes Norton on Abortion. Click here for 9 full quotes on Abortion OR background on Abortion. Women have been politically attacked on reproductive health. Apr Provide emergency contraception at military facilities. Apr Require pharmacies to fulfill contraceptive prescriptions.
Jul Ban anti-abortion limitations on abortion services. Nov Access safe, legal abortion without restrictions.
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