Abolishing The Seventeenth Amendment
The Seventeenth Amendment was ratified by most states in 1913
. The amendment calls for a direct election of Senators. Even though the Seventeenth Amendment may have solved some issues in 1913, it is not longer very effective and is now detrimental to the United States.
The Seventh Amendment reads: "[t]he 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."
Prior to the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment, states rather than individuals would vote for state senators. This way, each state"s government would have a representation in the federal legislature. Also, senators with the most merit rather than the most popular senators could be elected.
The United States has been built under a principle of both all citizens and the states having a voice in selecting federal government officials. The House of Representatives was designed to represent the interests of people while the Senate was designed to represent the interest of States. People could vote for their local state representative and local federal representative. There were many more representatives than senators so it is more likely that the representatives would actually represent the interests of their district. The representatives were also less prone to be influenced by special interest groups. Senators were chosen by elected state representatives. They did not have to campaign to be elected. They simply had to competent at lawmaking and understand the interest of their states.
After the Amendment was passed, state Senators had to get elected. In order for them elected, they had to get funding for the campaign. A large portion of the funding came from special interest groups that did not particularly correspond to state interests. In addition, these Senators no longer had to have as much merit as lawmakers. They just had to be able to win a campaign based on popularity. These Senators represented many people and had a very impersonal relationship with their constituents.
Besides lawmaking, Senators have an important task of confirming appointed federal officials, including Supreme Court members. Since the Seventeenth Amendment, Senators increasingly confirmed Supreme Court members that heavily enlarged the powers of the Federal government, and have essentially written out the Commerce Clause and Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The most apparent example was in case called Wickard v. Filburn in which the Supreme Court held that it was constitutional for the Federal government to forbid a farmer from growing crops for personal consumption since his production affected the interstate commerce of crops.
From an economic viewpoint, states are important for the economic development of the United States. States compete by creating the most favorable intrastate commerce policies encouraging resulting in improvements in commercial law in all states. In addition, people can move to a state which favors their trade the most. After the Seventh Amendment, the federal government heavily monopolized commerce preventing any such beneficial competition from occurring.
The Seventeenth Amendment also allows the governor to appoint Senators during a vacancy. This has proven to lead to corruption when Rod Blagojevich of Illinois tried to sell Barack Obama's seat.
Abolishing the Seventeenth Amendment would enlarge state rights, reduce special interest influence in the United States Federal Government, would likely reduce corruption, and would make the Supreme Court more considerate of states' rights.
by: Anton Lebedev
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