Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland delivered an impromptu history lesson the House floor Wednesday, correcting Rep. Dan Bishop for mistakenly announcing that Thomas Jefferson signed the Constitution.
Bishop made the error as he tried to counter Raskin’s argument all the way through a House floor debate a couple of invoice offered via Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., that will trade D.C. felony sentencing codes.
“The Constitution that Thomas Jefferson signed said the Congress shall have power ‘to exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District,’” Bishop mentioned.
Raskin, who used to be a professor of constitutional regulation at American University Washington College of Law ahead of his election to Congress, spoke back via declaring an error in Bishop’s observation, announcing that Jefferson didn’t signal the Constitution.
“I do have to correct my friend in his history because there might be some students watching this,” Raskin mentioned. “Thomas Jefferson never signed the Constitution. He was, of course, on a diplomatic mission when the Constitution was being signed in Philadelphia, but he did write the Declaration of Independence.”
Raskin had argued that the GOP invoice bristled towards a core allegation of Jefferson’s founding report via “dictating [to] the people in Washington, D.C., how they should order their affairs” on issues of felony regulation.
“If you read the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson set forth a bill of particulars against King George and the Parliament, and one of the central allegations of it was that they were denying the colonists the right to define criminal offenses for themselves,” Raskin mentioned.
During Wednesday’s floor debate, Donalds had argued that his invoice “requires that we treat adult criminals as adults, like the rest of the country does.”
The law used to be offered in March after the D.C. Council handed a public protection bundle that cleared the path for stricter punishments for plenty of crimes.
The law, titled the D. C. Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safe Act of 2024, amends the D.C. Council’s Youth Rehabilitation Act via reducing the eligibility for early life culprit standing in D.C. from below 25 years outdated to 18 or more youthful. The House handed the invoice following Wednesday’s floor debate.
Raskin gained his number one race in Maryland on Tuesday, turning into the Democratic nominee for the race for the state’s eighth Congressional District as he seeks a fourth time period representing the closely Democratic district.
A spokesperson for Donalds didn’t instantly reply to NBC News’ request for remark on Wednesday night time, nor did spokespeople for Bishop and Raskin.
