700,000 Americans.
Governed by a Congress
We Can't Vote For.
It shows.
The people of Washington, DC raise families, start businesses, and build communities. But not on our own terms.
When Congress blocked our budget and stripped a billion dollars of our own tax revenue, it's not an abstraction. It's why your kids' class size got bigger. It's why 911 calls go to voicemail. It's why the pothole on your block isn't fixed. And what do we get in return? The National Guard in our streets and a federal takeover of our police.
Statehood remains essential. But change doesn't have to wait.
Spotlight
Recent highlights
DC Council Testimony
Expert testimony before the DC Council Committee on the Judiciary & Public Safety regarding the federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police and strategies to strengthen local home rule.
Read moreFlip the Script Campaign
A bold public awareness campaign reframing the narrative around DC disenfranchisement, making the constitutional case for DC rights impossible to ignore.
Read moreStatement on Congressional Disapproval Resolution H.J.Res. 142
Congress Blocked DC's Tax Law. Now What?
Read moreAbout Us
A legal lab for
constitutional change
Capital Rights Lab is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to expanding democratic rights for DC residents. Why “lab”? Because we’re advancing a host of new legal theories, litigation models, policy reforms, and persuasion campaigns to most effectively expand access to representation and equal citizenship. Our work is building the legal case for expanded rights for DC citizens today, not waiting for Congress to act.
David founded Capital Rights Lab after more than a decade in law and politics in DC — as a policy advisor in the Obama White House, campaign counsel on the Biden and Harris presidential campaigns, and as a litigator at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. He holds a J.D. from Georgetown Law and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.