America may be getting a 51st state if hearings from this week to give Washington D.C. statehood bear fruit in the future. But can lawmakers even do this?

• The question is constitutional: Opponents to statehood, largely Republicans, say the Constitution requires the seat of the federal government to be neutral. 

• Statehood advocates, largely Democrat, have an answer: They have proposed a resolution to separate the actual seat of government into a commonwealth separate from the city of D.C. 

There are still Constitutional questions

Even if a resolution gets pulled off, Maryland may need to approve D.C. statehood separately, as it originally ceded land for the capital. And another Constitutional amendment, giving electors to D.C., would potentially need to be repealed.

The Verdict

The best chance any progress gets made on D.C. would involve another longshot change to established American tradition. Democrats likely need to get rid of the filibuster first.