Here's the history. In 1790, both Virginia and Maryland ceded territory to create the new national capital. Virginia's portion -- what is now Arlington County and the city of Alexandria -- remained part of the District of Columbia until 1847, when Congress returned it to Virginia. The reason? To protect slavery. The District had abolished it, and Virginia slaveholders didn't want to give up their slaves. Democrats love to talk about the legacy of slavery to justify tearing down statues, renaming buildings, etc. -- to be consistent, they should give that piece of land back to the District.
The legal questions over this retrocession have never gone away. President William Howard Taft and others argued that it was unconstitutional and pushed to reclaim the land for D.C. However, the Supreme Court has never definitively settled the matter.
Mizelle's proposal is for Trump to issue an executive order declaring that slavery-motivated retrocession unconstitutional. That order wouldn't need to resolve everything on its own -- it would immediately trigger litigation and force federal courts to finally answer the question: Do Arlington and Alexandria legally belong to Virginia or to the District of Columbia?
The legal footing here is rock solid, but the cultural argument is just as strong.
