The problem of Congressional representation for the District of Columbia, IV

Andrew Hyman notes the scheduling of a Senate hearing hearing to contemplate "Equal Representation in Congress: Providing Voting Rights to the District of Columbia." I wrote a fairly lengthy explanation of why I agree with Andrew that whether or not such a move would be equitable or good politics, nevertheless, any such legislation is unconstitutional last fall, and we've provided follow-up coverage here and here.

The only aspect of Andrew's letter I have reservations about is the weight he places on Madison's convention notes; as previously noted, "while I'm willing to look at Madison's notes as general background, to rest excessive authority on them seems as mistaken to me as is reliance on legislative history in statutory matters." Still, I suppose that since I quoted from legislative history in my own piece, I've rather forfeited that argument.

In the comments: Andrew stops by and notes that he was quoting a speech in the ratification debates by James Wilson. Wilson's speech was public and thus contributed to the public record (and was given after the process of writing the constitution was complete), that carries significantly more weight with me.