Surely they've fixed it since 1801!

Well, actually they haven't. The tradition involves decrying the injustice but failing to pass substantive legislation on the issue. President Adams made a pious speech about the District in 1800; President Monroe touched on the issue in his 1818 inauguration address, and President Harrison in 1841.

But DC citizens couldn't even vote for president for another 120 years until 1961, when the states ratified a constitutional amendment to deflect Cold War criticism by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter all supported District voting rights. Over the 20th century, commissions formed, political parties formed, lawsuits declaimed "taxation without representation" (and failed). But over the history of this national debacle, the DC residents have never cast a vote for the legislative body that controls them.

The last 30 years have seen limited success. In 1973, Congress passed the "Home Rule Act", giving DC a mayor and a 13-member council, elected by residents. Walter E. Washington was elected DC's first mayor in 1974, the first black mayor of any major American city. The DC Voting Rights Constitutional Amendment was passed through Congress in 1978, but was only ratified by 16 of the required 38 states by 1985, when it expired. A Democratic-controlled house defeated the New Columbia Admission Act in 1993, killing legislation for DC statehood. The same year, the House voted to allow DC a "shadow-representative" to vote only in committee, only to terminate the official position on the first day of the 1995 session.

The 107th Congress failed to move on the No Taxation Without Representation Act of 2002, a bill giving DC the same voting representation as the states. And currently, a legislative compromise is working through the House to create one new seat for Republican-dominated Utah in exchange for one seat of the historically Democratic DC.