This is a service offered by Cryptic Philosopher, free of charge, for agents of the federal Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), due to recent reports of some confusion among TSA airport security screeners regarding certain areas of the United States. Today, we will be discussing the District of Columbia.

• The District of Columbia (or “DC” for short) is a 68.3 square-mile district located on the north banks of the Potomac River. It is surrounded on three sides by the state of Maryland, and it borders the state of Virginia along the Potomac.
• It is also known as Washington; Washington, DC; “the District;” or simply “DC.”
• The District is divided into four quadrants: northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast, with the U.S. Capitol at the center of the dividing lines.
• It is not part of any of the fifty U.S. states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, and so on through Wyoming.) The United States Constitution, in Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, gives Congress authority over a federal district to serve as the “Seat of Government of the United States,” which can be no bigger than “ten Miles square,” or one hundred square miles.
• Congress passed the Residence Act in 1790, which our first president, George Washington, signed into law on July 16 of that year. That law allowed the creation of a federal capital along the Potomac River, although President Washington got to decide exactly where.

• The states of Virginia and Maryland donated land on either side of the river, which together formed a square ten miles per side. The area included Georgetown, Maryland and Alexandria, Virginia. Construction began on a capital city on the north side of the Potomac.
• Congress held its first session in DC in 1800.
• John Adams, the second President of the United States, moved into the White House in 1800. He had to move out a few months later after he lost the 1800 election to Thomas Jefferson.
• The Organic Act of 1801 officially created the District of Columbia and put it under Congress’ authority. In 1871, Congress dissolved the cities of Washington and Georgetown and put the entire District under a single city government.
• The areas of Virginia that were originally part of the District were returned to Virginia in 1846. Since then, DC has consisted only of the land donated by Maryland. That is why it only looks like part of a square.

• The District is therefore part of the United States of America. People who are born there are American citizens.
• Since DC is not a state, residents do not get to elect a voting member of Congress. They do, however, get to elect a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives. Since 1991, that office has been held by Eleanor Holmes Norton, who despite not having a vote, is kind of a badass.
• DC residents do get to vote for president. The 23rd Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1961, gives DC the same number of electoral votes as the least-populous state. DC therefore has three electoral votes. (The Electoral College is a whole other issue we’ll get into later, I’m sure.)
• A driver’s license from the District of Columbia is a valid form of identification in all fifty U.S. states.

And now you know.

UPDATE (07/18/2014): A knowledgeable Facebook friend commented that a DC driver’s license is, in fact, not acceptable as an form of ID to purchase alcohol in the state of New Hampshire, which only accepts “a passport, a military card, or a driver’s license or photo identification from any of the 50 states, as well as provinces of Canada.”

You can buy booze in New Hampshire with a Saskatchewan driver’s license, but not a DC license. This might even squeak past the U.S. Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, which only mentions “states,” not federal districts. Regardless, the question of acceptable forms of ID for buying booze is unlikely to come up in discussions with TSA agents in airport security lines, which was the point of this whole post.

Photo credits: USA_Counties.svg: U.S. Census BureauBlank_USA,_w_territories.svg: Lokal_Profil (USA_Counties.svgBlank_USA,_w_territories.svg) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons; USGS, modified by User:Postdlf (USGS satellite image) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.