Amendment XVII (17)

Amendment XVII

Ratified April 8, 1913

     The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
     When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
     This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

     This amendment is important because it established the direct election of United States Senators by popular vote. This amendment takes the place of Articles 1 and 3, which states that senators were elected by state legislatures and was intended to prevent the federal government from indirectly avoiding the powers and funds of the states, but this eventually led to a campaign for reform. There were several progressives that called for reform before the amendment was ratified, such as William Jennings Bryan. Congress passed the amendment on May 13, 1912 and received three-fourths of the states vote that had ratified the amendment. The amendment was formally declared by the Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, on May 31, 1913. Some critics of this amendment might think that it has violated the state suffrage clause of Article V. Also that the states have lost representation that they had in the federal government.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QE7mCk4vqY

     This link takes you to a video clip of Representative Gohmert's plan to repeal the seventeenth amendment. He believes that we shouldn't democratically elect senators anymore, so that state legislatures can just pick senators from here on out instead of letting citizens choose there own senators by voting.


     This picture also opposes what the seventeenth amendment has to say. This picture shows that the constitution, in a way, rules the states and thought the states may not like it, they still abide by it's rules in that they let the citizens chose their senators instead of being able to have instead of having state legislatures pick their own.