A similar fate befell the Voting Rights Amendment for the District of Columbia. Passed by Congress in 1978, it would have given citizens of the nation’s capital city the same full representation in Congress as any state (one voting representative in the House and two senators).

This amendment, too, survived a battle in Congress, where some conservatives argued the Constitution had been wise to restrict D.C., so that it did not become an overly powerful center of national politics on the model of London or Paris. The states proved less than enthusiastic, and the seven-year expiration date Congress had added as part of the deal (as with the ERA) meant the amendment died in 1985.