That’s no surprise, since the facts in the case are pretty simple. Our Constitution says members of the House of Representatives must be chosen “every second year by the people of the several states.” Since D.C. isn’t a state, it can’t choose representatives.

We could amend the Constitution, or cede the District back to Maryland (Virginia took back its portion of D.C. before the Civil War) and thus allow its residents to vote as Free Staters. But it would seemingly be unconstitutional for Congress to simply vote to allow representation, just as they can’t pass a law “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,” etc.

Except that Eric Holder disagrees. “The attorney general weighed the advice of different people inside the department, as well as the opinions of legal scholars, and made his own determination that the D.C. voting rights bill is constitutional,” Justice spokesman Matthew Miller explained.

Well, he may have weighed the advice, but only to reject the advice he weighed. Instead, the Post reports, Holder “sought the opinion of the solicitor general’s office, where lawyers told him that they could defend the legislation if it were challenged after its enactment.”

That, of course, is a completely different issue. There are plenty of things that could be defended. Lawyers, after all, are trained to argue both sides of a case. The question Justice Department lawyers were originally asked was should they be asked to defend it. And appointees from both sides of the political spectrum agreed: no.

Holder’s decision, overruling his own employees, seems to contradict what he said just months ago. “We don’t change OLC opinions simply because a new administration takes over,” Holder told senators during his confirmation hearing. “The review that we would conduct would be a substantive one and reflect the best opinions of probably the best lawyers in the department as to where the law would be, what their opinions should be. It will not be a political process, it will be one based solely on our interpretation of the law.”

Maybe he should just admit he’s tired of being stuck in traffic behind “Taxation without Representation” license plates and wants to allow the city to go back to its old “Celebrate & Discover” version. While such an explanation might seem inane, it makes about as much sense as Holder’s stated position on D.C. representation.