Opinion There is precedent for D.C. statehood

January 20, 2019 at 5:10 p.m. EST

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) advocates D.C. statehood at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington on Jan. 2. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

The Jan. 18 letter “Look to the past before granting D.C. statehood a future” correctly noted that the framers of the Constitution gave Congress authority over the nation’s capital to protect the security of the seat of the government and not leave that responsibility in the hands of whatever state in which the capital might be located. But this does not mean “history has a lot to tell us about why the District maybe shouldn’t be a state.”