The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution established the popular election of United States senators in each state. The amendment supersedes , Clauses 1 and2 of the Constitution, under which senators were elected by state legislatures. It also alters the procedure for filling vacancies in the Senate, allowing for state legislatures to permit their governors to make temporary appointments until a special election can be held. The amendment was proposed by the 62nd Congress in 1912 and became part of the Constitution on April 8, 1913, on ratification by three-quarters (36) of the state legislatures. Sitting senators were not affected until their existing terms expired.
Introduction
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Introduction
The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII). 62nd Congress The 62nd Congress. 62nd Congress
who elected senators under the provisions of the constitution as originally ratified
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State legislative election.
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who proposed this amendment?
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Calls for a constitutional amendment regarding Senate elections started in the early 19th century, with Henry R. Storrs in 1826 proposing an amendment to provide for popular election. Similar amendments were introduced in 1829 and 1855, with the "most prominent" proponent being Andrew Johnson, who raised the issue in 1868 and considered the idea's merits "so palpable" that no additional explanation was necessary. As noted above, in the 1860s, there was a major congressional dispute over the issue, with the House and Senate voting to veto the appointment of John P. Stockton to the Senate due to his approval by a plurality of the New Jersey Legislature rather than a majority.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Calls for reform
Most of the South had one-party states. When the resolution came before the Senate, a substitute resolution, one without the rider, was proposed by Joseph L. Bristow of Kansas. It was adopted by a vote of 64 to 24, with four not voting. Nearly a year later, the House accepted the change. The conference report that would become the Seventeenth Amendment was approved by the Senate 42 to 36 on April 12, 1912, and by the House 238 to 39, with 110 not voting on May 13, 1912.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal in Congress
Originally, under , Clauses 1 and2 of the Constitution, each state legislature elected its state's senators for a six-year term. Each state, regardless of size, is entitled to two senators as part of the Connecticut Compromise between the small and large states. This contrasted with the House of Representatives, a body elected by popular vote, and was described as an uncontroversial decision; at the time, James Wilson was the sole advocate of popularly electing the Senate, but his proposal was defeated 10–1. There were many advantages to the original method of electing senators. Prior to the Constitution, a federal body was one where states effectively formed nothing more than permanent treaties, with citizens retaining their loyalty to their original state.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Original composition
The transition began with two special elections in Georgia and Maryland, then in earnest with the November 1914 election; it was complete on March 4, 1919, when the senators chosen at the November 1918 election took office.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Introduction
In 1911, the House of Representatives passed House Joint Resolution 39 proposing a constitutional amendment for direct election of senators. The original resolution passed by the House contained the following clause: This so-called "race rider" clause would have strengthened the powers of states over senatorial elections and weakened those of Congress by overriding Congress's power to override state laws affecting the manner of senatorial elections. Since the turn of the century, most blacks in the South, and many poor whites, had been disenfranchised by state legislatures passing constitutions with provisions that were discriminatory in practice. This meant that their millions of population had no political representation.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal in Congress
The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution established the popular election of United States senators in each state. The amendment supersedes , Clauses 1 and2 of the Constitution, under which senators were elected by state legislatures. It also alters the procedure for filling vacancies in the Senate, allowing for state legislatures to permit their governors to make temporary appointments until a special election can be held. The amendment was proposed by the 62nd Congress in 1912 and became part of the Constitution on April 8, 1913, on ratification by three-quarters (36) of the state legislatures. Sitting senators were not affected until their existing terms expired.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Introduction
senator legislatively.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | First direct elections to the Senate
Some Radical Republicans, such as Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, abstained from voting because the amendment did not prohibit literacy tests and poll taxes. Following congressional approval, the proposed amendment was then sent by Secretary of State William Henry Seward to the states for ratification or rejection.
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal
It was hoped they would provide abler deliberation and greater stability than the House of Representatives due to the senators' status.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Original composition
By 1912, 27 states had called for a constitutional convention on the subject, with 31 states needed to reach the threshold. As the number of applications neared the two-thirds threshold, the Senate abandoned its strategy of obstruction. An amendment to the Constitution establishing the popular election of United States Senators by the people of the states was approved by Congress on May 13, 1912, and submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. By April 8, 1913 it had been ratified by the requisite number of states (36) to become the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Presidency of William Howard Taft | Direct election of senators
The tipping point came in 1865 with the election of John P. Stockton (D-NJ), which happened after the New Jersey legislature changed its rules regarding the definition of a quorum. In 1866, Congress acted to standardize a two-step process for Senate elections. In the first step, each chamber of the state legislature would meet separately to vote. The following day, the chambers would meet in "joint assembly" to assess the results, and if a majority in both chambers had voted for the same person, he would be elected. If not, the joint assembly would vote for a senator, with each member receiving a vote.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Issues
State legislatures retained the theoretical right to "instruct" their senators to vote for or against proposals, thus giving the states both direct and indirect representation in the federal government. The Senate was part of a formal bicameralism, with the members of the Senate and House responsible to completely distinct constituencies; this helped defeat the problem of the federal government being subject to "special interests". Members of the Constitutional Convention considered the Senate to be parallel to the British House of Lords as an "upper house", containing the "better men" of society, but improved upon as they would be conscientiously chosen by the upper houses of state republican legislatures for fixed terms, and not merely inherited for life as in the British system, subject to a monarch's arbitrary expansion.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Original composition
William Randolph Hearst opened a nationwide popular readership for direct election of U.S. senators in a 1906 series of articles using flamboyant language attacking "The Treason of the Senate" in his "Cosmopolitan" magazine. David Graham Philips, one of the "yellow journalists" whom President Teddy Roosevelt called "muckrakers", described Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island as the principal "traitor" among the "scurvy lot" in control of the Senate by theft, perjury, and bribes corrupting the state legislatures to gain election to the Senate. A few state legislatures began to petition the Congress for direct election of senators. By 1893, the House had the two-thirds vote for just such an amendment.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Calls for reform
This amendment was one of several proposed amendments to the Constitution introduced by Representative James Madison of Virginia in the House of Representatives on June 8, 1789. Madison's original intent was that it be added to the end of of the Constitution ("The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States"). This, along with Madison's other proposals were referred to a committee consisting of one representative from each state. After emerging from committee, the full House debated the issue and, on August 24, 1789, passed it and sixteen other articles of amendment.
Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal by Congress
In reaction, the Congress passed a bill in July 1866 that required state legislatures to elect senators by an absolute majority. By the 1890s, support for the introduction of direct election for the Senate had substantially increased, and reformers worked on two fronts. On the first front, the Populist Party incorporated the direct election of senators into its Omaha Platform, adopted in 1892. In 1908, Oregon passed the first law basing the selection of U.S. senators on a popular vote. Oregon was soon followed by Nebraska. Proponents for popular election noted that ten states already had non-binding primaries for Senate candidates, in which the candidates would be voted on by the public, effectively serving as advisory referenda instructing state legislatures how to vote; reformers campaigned for more states to introduce a similar method.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Calls for reform
Oklahoma, admitted to statehood in 1907, chose a senator by legislative election three times: twice in 1907, when admitted, and once in 1908. In 1912, Oklahoma reelected Robert Owen by advisory popular vote. Oregon held primaries in 1908 in which the parties would run candidates for that position, and the state legislature pledged to choose the winner as the new senator. New Mexico, admitted to statehood in 1912, chose only its first two senators legislatively. Arizona, admitted to statehood in 1912, chose its first two senators by advisory popular vote. Alaska, and Hawaii, admitted to statehood in 1959, have never chosen a U.S.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | First direct elections to the Senate
As time went by, more and more state legislatures adopted resolutions demanding that a convention be called, thus pressuring the Senate to finally relent and approve what later became the Seventeenth Amendment for fear that such a convention—if permitted to assemble—might stray to include issues above and beyond just the direct election of senators.
Constitutional amendment | Federal constitution
According to Judge Jay Bybee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, those in favor of popular elections for senators believed two primary problems were caused by the original provisions: legislative corruption and electoral deadlocks. There was a sense that senatorial elections were "bought and sold", changing hands for favors and sums of money rather than because of the competence of the candidate. Between 1857 and 1900, the Senate investigated three elections over corruption. In 1900, for example, William A. Clark had his election voided after the Senate concluded that he had bought votes in the Montana legislature.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Issues
In "Trinsey v. Pennsylvania" (1991), the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit was faced with a situation where, following the death of Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania, Governor Bob Casey had provided for a replacement and for a special election that did not include a primary. A voter and prospective candidate, John S. Trinsey, Jr., argued that the lack of a primary violated the Seventeenth Amendment and his right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Third Circuit rejected these arguments, ruling that the Seventeenth Amendment does not require primaries. Another subject of analysis is whether statutes restricting the authority of governors to appoint temporary replacements are constitutional.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Court cases and interpretation controversies
Consideration then turned to a proposed amendment by Representative John A. Bingham of Ohio, which would enable Congress to safeguard "equal protection of life, liberty, and property" of all citizens; this proposal failed to pass the House. In April 1866, the Joint Committee forwarded a third proposal to Congress, a carefully negotiated compromise that combined elements of the first and second proposals as well as addressing the issues of Confederate debt and voting by ex-Confederates. The House of Representatives passed "House Resolution 127, 39th Congress" several weeks later and sent to the Senate for action. The resolution was debated and several amendments to it were proposed.
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal by Congress
Originally, U.S. Senators were chosen by the Virginia General Assembly. On February 19, 1914, legislation was introduced in the Virginia House of Delegates calling for the direct election of United States senators by the voters of Virginia. This followed enactment of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on April 8, 1913. Virginia had not voted to ratify the amendment.
Electoral reform in Virginia | Direct election of U.S. Senators
On January 6, 1965, Senator Birch Bayh proposed S.J. Res.1 in the Senate and Representative Emanuel Celler (Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee) proposed H.J. Res.1 in the House of Representatives. Their proposal specified the process by which a president could be declared "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office", thereby making the vice president an acting president, and how the president could regain the powers of his office. Also, their proposal provided a way to fill a vacancy in the office of vice president before the next presidential election. This was as opposed to the Keating–Kefauver proposal, which neither provided for filling a vacancy in the office of vice president prior to the next presidential election nor provided a process for determining presidential disability.
Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Bayh–Celler proposal
"The Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the United States During the First Century of Its History" earned Ames the American Historical Association's Justin Winsor Prize. It was reprinted in 1970.
Herman Vandenburg Ames | "The Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the United States"
50 (""proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to abolishing personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibiting the United States Government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens"") by then-United States Representative Ron Paul of Texas (157 "Congressional Record" 3989). Paul offered detailed explanatory remarks about the proposed constitutional amendment which were printed in the "Congressional Record" (157 "Congressional Record" 4099). As presented by Paul, the text of the proposed constitutional amendment reads as follows:
Proposed &quot;Liberty&quot; Amendment to the United States Constitution | Introduction
However, when the joint resolution reached the Senate, it failed from neglect, as it did again in 1900, 1904 and 1908; each time the House approved the appropriate resolution, and each time it died in the Senate.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Calls for reform
Senator Keating was defeated in the 1964 election, but Senator Roman Hruska of Nebraska took up Keating's cause as a new member of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments.
Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Keating–Kefauver proposal
The Seventeenth Amendment altered the process for electing United States senators and changed the way vacancies would be filled. Originally, the Constitution required state legislatures to fill Senate vacancies. According to Judge Bybee, the Seventeenth Amendment had a dramatic impact on the political composition of the U.S. Senate. Before the Supreme Court required "one man, one vote" in "Reynolds v. Sims" (1964), malapportionment of state legislatures was common. For example, rural counties and cities could be given "equal weight" in the state legislatures, enabling one rural vote to equal 200 city votes. The malapportioned state legislatures would have given the Republicans control of the Senate in the 1916 Senate elections.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Effect
Sanford Levinson, in his rebuttal to Amar, argues that rather than engaging in a textual interpretation, those examining the meaning of constitutional provisions should interpret them in the fashion that provides the most benefit, and that legislatures' being able to restrict gubernatorial appointment authority provides a substantial benefit to the states.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Court cases and interpretation controversies
Main Article: 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution In 1913 the 17th amendment was passed and signed into law. This amendment effectively defeated Hamilton's argument on the matter of the election of senators and the necessary evil that he saw as a check by the states on the power of the federal government. Specifically, Article 1, Amendment 17, 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."
Federalist No. 59 | 17th Amendment
In 1913, he made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate, seeking the Democratic nomination from the state legislature. That year, the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, providing for popular election of US senators. It generally affected elections for US senators beginning in 1914.
Lawrence Tyson | State politics
Amendments to Sections 2, 3, and4 were adopted on June 8, 1866, and the modified resolution passed by a 33 to 11 vote (5 absent, not voting). The House agreed to the Senate amendments on June 13 by a 138–36 vote (10 not voting). A concurrent resolution requesting the President to transmit the proposal to the executives of the several states was passed by both houses of Congress on June 18.
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal by Congress
On June 16, 1909, President William Howard Taft, in an address to the Sixty-first Congress, proposed a two percent federal income tax on corporations by way of an excise tax and a constitutional amendment to allow the previously enacted income tax. An income tax amendment to the Constitution was first proposed by Senator Norris Brown of Nebraska. He submitted two proposals, Senate Resolutions Nos. 25 and 39. The amendment proposal finally accepted was Senate Joint Resolution No. 40, introduced by Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island, the Senate majority leader and Finance Committee Chairman. The amendment was proposed as part of the congressional debate over the 1909 Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act; by proposing the amendment, Aldrich hoped to temporarily defuse progressive calls for the imposition of new taxes in the tariff act.
Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Adoption
However, under the new Constitution, the federal government was granted substantially more power than before. Having the state legislatures elect the senators reassured anti-federalists that there would be some protection against the federal government's swallowing up states and their powers, and providing a check on the power of the federal government. Additionally, the longer terms and avoidance of popular election turned the Senate into a body that could counter the populism of the House. While the representatives operated in a two-year direct election cycle, making them frequently accountable to their constituents, the senators could afford to "take a more detached view of issues coming before Congress".
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Original composition
The original proposal starting in the New York State Legislature would have, along with designation, put forward the idea of the district election of electors that Treasury Secretary Gallatin had supported. Shortly after the committee was formed, Federalist Benjamin Huger attempted to add a provision regarding district elections to the proposed amendment, but the committee ignored him. The committee then submitted an updated version of the designation amendment to the House on October 23 that changed the number of candidates in a contingency election from five to three and allowed the Senate to choose the vice president if there were a tie in that race.
Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution | House of Representatives
The experience also encouraged both radical and moderate Republicans to seek Constitutional guarantees for black rights, rather than relying on temporary political majorities. More than seventy proposals for an amendment were drafted. In late 1865, the Joint Committee on Reconstruction proposed an amendment stating that any citizens barred from voting on the basis of race by a state would not be counted for purposes of representation of that state. This amendment passed the House, but was blocked in the Senate by a coalition of Radical Republicans led by Charles Sumner, who believed the proposal a "compromise with wrong", and Democrats opposed to black rights.
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal by Congress
Senate Joint Resolution–39, which would eventually become the Twenty-third Amendment, was introduced in 1959 by Tennessee Democratic senator Estes Kefauver. His proposal would provide for the emergency functioning of Congress and continuity of the legislative process by authorizing governors to fill vacancies in the House of Representatives "on any date that the total number of vacancies ... exceeds half of the authorized membership." The governor's appointive authority would have been limited to 60 days, and the appointee would have served until a successor was elected in a special election. The bill was amended twice on the Senate floor. One added provision, proposed by New York Republican Kenneth Keating, would grant the District of Columbia electoral votes in national elections and non-voting delegate(s) to the House.
Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution | Adoption by the Congress
For the first 125 years of the federal government's existence, Americans did not directly vote for U.S. Senators. The Constitution, as it was adopted in 1788, stated that senators would be elected by state legislatures. During the 1890s, the House of Representatives passed several resolutions proposing a constitutional amendment for the direct election of senators, but the Senate refused to even take a vote on such a measure. A number of states began calling for a constitutional convention on the subject, since Article V of the Constitution states that Congress must call a constitutional convention for proposing amendments when two-thirds of the state legislatures apply for one.
Presidency of William Howard Taft | Direct election of senators
The vote in the House was 144 to 44, with 35 not voting. The House vote was almost entirely along party lines, with no Democrats supporting the bill and only 3Republicans voting against it, some because they thought the amendment did not go far enough in its protections. The House of Representatives passed the amendment with 143 Republican and 1Conservative Republican votes of "Yes"; 39 Democrat, 3Republican, 1Independent Republican and 1Conservative votes of "No"; 26 Republican, 8Democrat and 1Independent Republican not voting. The final vote in the Senate was 39 to 13, with 14 not voting. The Senate passed the amendment with a vote of 39 Republican votes of "Yea", 8Democrat and 5Republican votes of "Nay"; 13 Republican and 1Democrat not voting.
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal
Anticipating an increase in Democratic membership in the following Congress, Republicans used the lame-duck session of the 40th United States Congress to pass an amendment protecting black suffrage. Representative John Bingham, the primary author of the Fourteenth Amendment, pushed for a wide-ranging ban on suffrage limitations, but a broader proposal banning voter restriction on the basis of "race, color, nativity, property, education, or religious beliefs" was rejected. A proposal to specifically ban literacy tests was also rejected. Some Representatives from the North, where nativism was a major force, wished to preserve restrictions denying the franchise to foreign-born citizens, as did Representatives from the West, where ethnic Chinese were banned from voting.
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal
In 1963, Senator Kenneth Keating of New York proposed a Constitutional amendment which would have enabled Congress to enact legislation providing for how to determine when a president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the presidency, rather than, as the Twenty-fifth Amendment does, having the Constitution so provide. This proposal was based upon a recommendation of the American Bar Association in 1960. The text of the proposal read: Senators raised concerns that the Congress could either abuse such authority or neglect to enact any such legislation after the adoption of this proposal. Tennessee senator Estes Kefauver, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, a long-time advocate for addressing the disability question, spearheaded the effort until he died in August 1963.
Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Keating–Kefauver proposal
Vikram Amar, writing in the "Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly", claims Wyoming's requirement that its governor fill a senatorial vacancy by nominating a person of the same party as the person who vacated that seat violates the Seventeenth Amendment. This is based on the text of the Seventeenth Amendment, which states that "the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments". The amendment only empowers the legislature to delegate the authority to the governor and, once that authority has been delegated, does not permit the legislature to intervene. The authority is to decide whether the governor shall have the power to appoint temporary senators, not whom the governor may appoint.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Court cases and interpretation controversies
Constitution's 17th Amendment.
Laura E. Little | Biography
Notwithstanding controversies over the effects of the Seventeenth Amendment, advocates have emerged to reform or repeal the amendment. Under President Barack Obama's administration in 2009, four sitting Democratic senators left the Senate for executive branch positions: Barack Obama (President), Joe Biden (Vice President), Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State), and Ken Salazar (Secretary of the Interior). Controversies developed about the successor appointments made by Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and New York governor David Paterson. New interest was aroused in abolishing the provision for the Senate appointment by the governor. Accordingly, Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Representative David Dreier of California proposed an amendment to remove this power; senators John McCain and Dick Durbin became co-sponsors, as did Representative John Conyers.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Reform and repeal efforts
On August 1, 1917, the Senate passed a resolution containing the language of the amendment to be presented to the states for ratification. The vote was 65 to 20, with the Democrats voting 36 in favor and 12 in opposition; and the Republicans voting 29 in favor and 8in opposition. The House of Representatives passed a revised resolution on December 17, 1917. This was the first amendment to impose a date by which it had to be ratified or else the amendment would be discarded. In the House, the vote was 282 to 128, with the Democrats voting 141 in favor and 64 in opposition; and the Republicans voting 137 in favor and 62 in opposition.
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal and ratification
Having been passed by Congress, the amendment was sent to the states for ratification and was ratified by: The Utah legislature rejected the amendment on February 26, 1913. No action on the amendment has been completed by: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, Alaska or Hawaii. Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states at the time of the amendment's proposal, and have never taken any official action to support or oppose the amendment since achieving statehood.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Ratification by the states
Robert La Follette, Sr. was the man who implemented much of this legislation, and he was among the earliest supporters of direct election of senators, which is now a national practice. These progressive politicians also helped pass the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments to the American Constitution. These proposed reforms, all of which were eventually adopted, included:
Wisconsin Idea | In politics
Put forward by Robert A. Taft, it clarified procedures governing the number of times a vice president who succeeded to the presidency might be elected to office. The amended proposal was passed 59–23, with 16 Democrats in favor, on March 12. On March 21, the House agreed to the Senate's revisions and approved the resolution to amend the Constitution. Afterward, the amendment imposing term limitations on future presidents was submitted to the states for ratification. The ratification process was completed on February 27, 1951, after it was sent to the states.
Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal in Congress
Inserted a new subsection in Article 28.4: The existing subsection 3º of Article 28.4 was renumbered as subsection 4º.
Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland | Changes to the text
With direct election, each vote represented equally, the Democrats retained control of the Senate. The reputation of corrupt and arbitrary state legislatures continued to decline as the Senate joined the House of Representatives implementing popular reforms. Bybee has argued that the amendment led to complete "ignominy" for state legislatures without the buttress of a state-based check on Congress. In the decades following the Seventeenth Amendment, the federal government was enabled to enact progressive measures. However, Schleiches argues that the separation of state legislatures and the Senate had a beneficial effect on the states, as it led state legislative campaigns to focus on local rather than national issues.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Effect
not for a full term). The Seventeenth Amendment permits state legislatures to empower their governors to make temporary appointments until the required special election takes place. The manner by which the Seventeenth Amendment is enacted varies among the states. A 2018 report breaks this down into the following three broad categories (specific procedures vary among the states):
United States Senate | Vacancies
Ives proposed in 1920 that there be a 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would authorize citizens to submit legislative proposals to Congress. Members of Congress would then cull the proposals, selecting 10 each year as referendums for popular vote by the nation's electorate. He even had printed at his own expense several thousand copies of a pamphlet on behalf of his proposed amendment. The pamphlet proclaimed the need to curtail "THE EFFECTS OF TOO MUCH POLITICS IN OUR representative DEMOCRACY". He planned to distribute the pamphlets at the 1920 Republican National Convention, but they arrived from the printer after the convention had ended.
Charles Ives | Politics
The United States Senate elections of 1816 and 1817 were elections for the United States Senate that had the Democratic-Republican Party gain a net of two seats from the admission of a new state, and which coincided with the presidential election. As these elections were prior to ratification of the seventeenth amendment, Senators were chosen by state legislatures.
1816 and 1817 United States Senate elections | Introduction
In 1866, during the Thirty-ninth Congress, Bingham was appointed to a subcommittee of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction tasked with considering suffrage proposals. As a member of the subcommittee, Bingham submitted several versions of an amendment to the Constitution to apply the Bill of Rights to the States. His final submission, which was accepted by the Committee on April 28, 1866, read, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The Committee recommended for the language to become Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
John Bingham | 14th Amendment
The House of Representatives took quick action, approving a proposed constitutional amendment (House Joint Resolution 27) setting a limit of two four-year terms for future presidents. Introduced by Earl C. Michener, the measure passed 285–121, with support from 47 Democrats, on February 6, 1947. Meanwhile, the Senate developed its own proposed amendment, which initially differed from the House proposal by requiring that the amendment be submitted to state ratifying conventions for ratification, rather than to the state legislatures, and by prohibiting any person who had served more than 365 days in each of two terms from further presidential service. Both these provisions were removed when the full Senate took up the bill, but a new provision was, however, added.
Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal in Congress
The Seventeenth Amendment requires a governor to call a special election to fill vacancies in the Senate. It also allows a state's legislature to permit its governor to make temporary appointments, which last until a special election is held to fill the vacancy. Currently, all but five states (North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin) permit such appointments. The Constitution does not set out how the temporary appointee is to be selected.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Filling vacancies
He began with his efforts in Congress during its "lame duck" session, in which many members of Congress had already seen their successors elected; most would be concerned about unemployment and lack of income, and none needed to fear the electoral consequences of cooperation. Popular support for the amendment mounted and Lincoln urged Congress on in his December 6, 1864 State of the Union Address: "there is only a question of "time" as to when the proposed amendment will go to the States for their action. And as it is to so go, at all events, may we not agree that the sooner the better?"
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Passage by Congress
Borah and other progressives had proposed an income tax to be attached to the tariff bill; when this was unacceptable to Taft, who feared the Supreme Court would strike it down again, Borah repackaged it as a constitutional amendment, which passed the Senate unanimously and then the House, and to the surprise of many, passed the requisite number of state legislatures by 1913 to become the Sixteenth Amendment.
William Borah | Progressive insurgent (1907–1913)
These included conventions to consider amendments to (1) provide for popular election of U.S. Senators; (2) permit the states to include factors other than equality of population in drawing state legislative district boundaries; and (3) to propose an amendment requiring the U.S. budget to be balanced under most circumstances. The campaign for a popularly elected Senate is frequently credited with "prodding" the Senate to join the House of Representatives in proposing what became the Seventeenth Amendment to the states in 1912, while the latter two campaigns came very close to meeting the two-thirds threshold in the 1960s and 1980s, respectively.
Second Constitutional Convention of the United States | Background
In the North Carolina debates about ratifying the Constitution, James Iredell, who subsequently became one of the founding members of the Supreme Court, stated that when two-thirds of states have applied to Congress for a convention, Congress is "under the necessity of convening one" and that they have "no option." By citing the Constitution's Necessary and Proper Clause, Congress has tried to enact a statute to regulate how an Article V convention would function. Sponsored by the late Senator Sam Ervin, such a bill passed the U.S. Senate unanimously in 1971 and again in 1973, but the proposed legislation remained bottled up in the Committee on the Judiciary in the U.S.
Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution | Permissible scope of proposed amendments
The Twelfth Amendment (1804) modifies the way the Electoral College chooses the President and Vice President. It stipulates that each elector must cast a distinct vote for president and Vice President, instead of two votes for president. It also suggests that the President and Vice President should not be from the same state. is superseded by this amendment, which also extends the to become president to the Vice President. The Seventeenth Amendment (1913) modifies the way senators are elected. It stipulates that senators are to be elected by direct popular vote. The amendment supersedes , Clauses1 and 2, under which the two senators from each state were elected by the state legislature.
Constitution of the United States | Government processes and procedures (Amendments 12, 17, 20, 22, 25, and 27)
On May 8, 1866, during a debate on the Fourteenth Amendment, Thaddeus Stevens, the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, delivered a speech on the amendment's intent. Regarding Section 2, he said: Federal law () implements Section 2's mandate.
United States Electoral College | Fourteenth Amendment
This page lists all appointed United States senators since the 1913 ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which established the direct election of senators, as well as means of filling vacant Senate seats.
List of appointed United States senators | Introduction
In the late 1890s, the House of Representatives passed multiple resolutions for a constitutional amendment providing for direct election of senators. The Senate refused to consider those resolutions. In 1893, Nebraska filed the first Article V application for direct election of senators. By 1911, 29 states had Article V convention applications on file for an amendment providing for direct election of senators, just two short of the 31-state threshold. As new states were being added the threshold increased, however those States had already passed resolutions supporting such a Convention. The final count is somewhat uncertain, but when either one or two further states were required the Senate finally conceded and passed its version of an amendment in May 1911, which was then approved by the House in 1912 and submitted to the states.
Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution | Direct election of Senators
But analysts Bybee and Todd Zywicki believe this concern was largely unfounded; there was a "dearth of hard information" on the subject. In more than a century of legislative elections of U.S. senators, only ten cases were contested for allegations of impropriety. Electoral deadlocks were another issue. Because state legislatures were charged with deciding whom to appoint as senators, the system relied on their ability to agree. Some states could not, and thus delayed sending representatives to Congress; in a few cases, the system broke down to the point where states completely lacked representation in the Senate. Deadlocks started to become an issue in the 1850s, with a deadlocked Indiana legislature allowing a Senate seat to sit vacant for two years.
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Issues
On January 6, 2019, Johnson's proposed amendment qualified for the November 2020 ballot.
Brendan Johnson | Proposed Constitutional Amendment
Some members of the Tea Party movement argued for repealing the Seventeenth Amendment entirely, claiming it would protect states' rights and reduce the power of the federal government. On March 2, 2016, the Utah legislature approved Senate Joint Resolution No.2 asking Congress to offer an amendment to the United States Constitution that would repeal the Seventeenth Amendment. , no other states had supported such an amendment, and some politicians who had made statements in favor of repealing the amendment had subsequently reversed their position on this. On July 28, 2017, after Senators John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted no on Affordable Care Act repeal attempt Health Care Freedom Act, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee endorsed the repeal on the Seventeenth Amendment, claiming that Senators chosen by state legislatures will work for their states and respect the Tenth Amendment, and also that direct election of Senators is a major cause of the "swamp".
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Reform and repeal efforts
The United States Congress was created in Article I of the Constitution, where the Founding Fathers laid out the limitations and powers of Congress. Article I grants Congress legislative power and lists the enumerated powers and allows Congress to make laws that are necessary and proper to carry out the enumerated powers. It specifies the election and composition of the House of Representative no s and Senate and the qualifications necessary to serve in each chamber. The Seventeenth Amendment changed how senators were elected. Originally, senators were elected by state legislatures. The Seventeenth Amendment changed this to senators being elected directly by popular vote.
Member of Congress | History of the United States Congress
An unsuccessful proposed constitutional amendment to do this failed in 1978. Many citizens of the district favor statehood or further constitutional amendments to address these issues.
Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution | Introduction
House of Representatives and died both times. Senator Orrin Hatch made a similar proposal several times in the late 1980s culminating in 1991 with no more success. Opponents to congressional regulation of an Article V convention's operations argue that neither Article I nor Article V of the Constitution grants Congress this power, and that the Founders intended that Congress "have no option." There has been no opportunity for federal courts to decide whether Congress has such authority because such legislation has never been adopted by Congress.
Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution | Permissible scope of proposed amendments
Federalist senators argued for retaining the original procedure for the Electoral College. Senator Samuel White of Delaware claimed that the original procedure had not been given "a fair experiment" and criticized the proposed amendment for entrenching the two-party system which had taken over presidential elections.
Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Senate
Writing for the majority, Justice James Clark McReynolds held that the U.S. Constitution did not grant Congress the power to regulate primary elections or political party nomination processes. The power of Congress over federal elections, McReynolds said, has its source solely in Article I, Section 4, of the Constitution. The Seventeenth Amendment, promulgated in May 1913, neither instituted nor required a new meaning of the term "election" and so did not modify Article I, Section 4. Primaries, McReynolds argued, are definitely not elections for office. Neither a plain reading of the Constitution nor the meaning ascribed to them by the framers of the Constitution permits any other conclusion, he said.
Newberry v. United States | Decision
In 1878, Aaron, while a Senator, had proposed a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, but it was not passed. The bill was reintroduced in 1919 and enacted in 1920 as the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Ellen Clark Sargent | Nineteenth Amendment
In the final years of the Civil War, Union lawmakers debated various proposals for Reconstruction. Some of these called for a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery nationally and permanently. On December 14, 1863, a bill proposing such an amendment was introduced by Representative James Mitchell Ashley of Ohio. Representative James F. Wilson of Iowa soon followed with a similar proposal. On January 11, 1864, Senator John B. Henderson of Missouri submitted a joint resolution for a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, became involved in merging different proposals for an amendment. Radical Republicans led by Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner and Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens sought a more expansive version of the amendment.
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Crafting the amendment
Shortly thereafter, Clinton won a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate, where he was instrumental in bringing the designation amendment to Congress. The process continued in New York on February 15 when Representative Benjamin Walker of New York proposed the designation and district election amendments to the House. Debate on the amendments began in May. The Republicans wanted to decide on the amendment quickly, but the Federalists argued that the ideas needed more time than the current session allowed. Federalist Samuel W. Dana of Connecticut wanted to examine the necessity of a vice president. The amendment ultimately failed in the New York State Senate, but DeWitt Clinton brought the amendment discussion to the House of Representatives.
Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Journey to Congress
Senators (that became the 17th Amendment). He rose to influence on the House Ways and Means Committee and as proto-party whip. When the Spanish–American War in 1898 stimulated demand for farm products, the family farms again prospered and his brothers opened a wholesale grocery in Danville.
Claude A. Swanson | Congressman and Virginia politician
After several years of comparatively weak government under the Articles of Confederation, a Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia proposed a new constitution on September 17, 1787, featuring a stronger chief executive and other changes. George Mason, a Constitutional Convention delegate and the drafter of Virginia's Declaration of Rights, proposed that a bill of rights listing and guaranteeing civil liberties be included. Other delegates—including future Bill of Rights drafter James Madison—disagreed, arguing that existing state guarantees of civil liberties were sufficient and that any attempt to enumerate individual rights risked implying that other, unnamed rights were unprotected. After a brief debate, Mason's proposal was defeated by a unanimous vote of the state delegations.
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal and ratification
Of course a comparison would be invidious, and I do not desire to institute one. But I am not at liberty to ignore the facts. Let us see how, under this proposed Constitution, the English-speaking people would be placed in reference to their peculiar interests and their peculiar ideas. In the first place, I would desire to direct your attention to the 14th resolution, by which it is provided how, especially after the local governments are established, the Legislative Council of the General Government is to be constituted — by its members being appointed by the Federal Government on the nomination of the respective local governments.
James O'Halloran | The Confederation Debates
Therefore, a less stringent process for amending the Constitution was established in Article V.
List of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution | Introduction
The State election was held from April 24 to 26, 1821. Abel Huntington (Southern D.), Abraham J. Hasbrouck (Middle D.), David C. Judson, Daniel Shipherd, John L. Viele (all three Eastern D.), Henry Seymour ( Western D.); and Assemblymen Abraham Gurnee (Southern D.), Archibald McIntyre (Middle D.) and Samuel M. Hopkins (Western D.) were also elected to the Senate. Huntington, Gurnee and Seymour were Bucktails, the other six Clintonians. At the same time, the question whether a Convention to amend the New York Constitution should be called, was answered in the affirmative by the voters, and delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1821 were elected in June.
45th New York State Legislature | Elections
The Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1958 was a proposal to amend the Constitution of Ireland to alter the electoral system from proportional representation under the single transferable vote (PR-STV) to first-past-the-post (FPTP). The proposal was rejected in a referendum held on 17 June 1959. This was the same date as the presidential election in which Taoiseach Éamon de Valera was elected as president.
Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1958 | Introduction
(*note. Though the 17th Amendment to the Constitution was not ratified until 1913, the Montana legislature provided for the direct election of US Senators in 1911 in anticipation of the amendment's ratification.) Dixon would lose the election in a Democratic sweep and would lose the paper for financial reasons five years later.
Missoulian | Republican era
In 1964, the American Bar Association endorsed the type of proposal which Bayh and Celler advocated. On January 28, 1965, President Johnson endorsed S.J. Res.1 in a statement to Congress. Their proposal received bipartisan support. On February 19, the Senate passed the amendment, but the House passed a different version of the amendment on April 13. On April 22, it was returned to the Senate with revisions. There were four areas of disagreement between the House and Senate versions: On July 6, after a conference committee ironed out differences between the versions, the final version of the amendment was passed by both Houses of the Congress and presented to the states for ratification.
Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Bayh–Celler proposal
In the 1st United States Congress, following the state legislatures' request, James Madison proposed twenty constitutional amendments based on state bills of rights and English sources such as the Bill of Rights 1689. Among them was an amendment protecting findings of fact in civil cases exceeding a certain dollar value from judicial review. Madison proposed that this amendment should be added directly to Article III, though Congress later determined to add the proposed Bill of Rights to the end of the Constitution, leaving the original text intact. Congress also reduced Madison's proposed twenty amendments to twelve, and these were proposed to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789.
Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal and ratification
Under Article I, Section 3, of the U.S. Constitution, each state has two seats in the Senate. This equality of representation is shielded from being amended by Article V which specifies that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of having the same number of seats as the others. (Neither the District of Columbia, nor the country's territories and possessions have representation in the Senate, as they are not states.) Senators from each state were originally elected by that state's legislature, and influenced only indirectly by the voters, through their election of state legislators. The 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, provided for direct election of U.S.
Apportionment (politics) | Senate
The amendment was introduced by the Fine Gael–Labour Party–Democratic Left government led by Taoiseach John Bruton.
Sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland | Background
In the final years of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era that followed, Congress repeatedly debated the rights of black former slaves freed by the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the 1865 Thirteenth Amendment, the latter of which had formally abolished slavery. Following the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment by Congress, however, Republicans grew concerned over the increase it would create in the congressional representation of the Democratic-dominated Southern States. Because the full population of freed slaves would now be counted for determining congressional representation, rather than the three-fifths previously mandated by the Three-Fifths Compromise, the Southern States would dramatically increase their power in the population-based House of Representatives, regardless of whether the former slaves were allowed to vote.
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal by Congress
All elections are by the Ohio General Assembly, as state legislatures elected senators until the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913.
Mark Hanna | Electoral history
The proposed "Liberty" Amendment to the United States Constitution was first proffered, pursuant to the Constitution's Article V, for the consideration of the 82nd United States Congress on June 28, 1952, in the form of House Joint Resolution No. 491 (""proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to calling of a convention to consider an amendment to the Constitution to prohibit the United States Government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens"") by the late United States Representative Ralph W. Gwinn of New York (98 "Congressional Record" 8542). Most recently, it was presented for the consideration of the 112th Congress on March 15, 2011, in the form of House Joint Resolution No.
Proposed &quot;Liberty&quot; Amendment to the United States Constitution | Introduction
The amendment also established procedures in the case that a president-elect dies, is not chosen, or otherwise fails to qualify prior to the start of a new presidential term.
Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Introduction
The proposals went next to the Senate, which made 26 substantive alterations. On September 9, 1789, the Senate approved a culled and consolidated package of twelve articles of amendment. On September 21, 1789, a House–Senate conference committee convened to resolve numerous differences between the House and Senate Bill of Rights proposals. On September 24, 1789, the committee issued its report, which finalized 12 proposed amendments for the House and Senate to consider. The House agreed to the conference report that same day, and the Senate concurred the next day. What would become the Twenty-seventh Amendment was listed second among the twelve proposals sent to the states for their consideration on September 25, 1789.
Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal by Congress
The wording the Joint Committee proposed for Article 15 was:
Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2011 | Background
The first election under the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was a late election held June 15, 1913. Augustus Octavius Bacon was first elected by the Georgia Legislature in 1894. His most recent term had ended March 3, 1913, but the Legislature had failed to elect a successor. The Governor of Georgia then appointed Bacon to begin the term starting March 4, 1913. Bacon was re-elected in this late election, running unopposed.
1913 United States Senate election in Georgia | Introduction
The eleven amendments proposed by Levin: Levin would have these amendments proposed to the states by a convention of the states as described in Article Five of the Constitution.
The Liberty Amendments | Summary
Hatch pushed legislation for the Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment, which would amend Article 2, Section I, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution. This amendment would allow anyone who has been a U.S. citizen for twenty years to seek the presidency or vice-presidency.
Orrin Hatch | Other issues
In 1910, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, shortly before becoming a Supreme Court Justice, spoke out against the income tax amendment. Hughes supported the idea of a federal income tax, but believed the words "from whatever source derived" in the proposed amendment implied that the federal government would have the power to tax state and municipal bonds. He believed this would excessively centralize governmental power and "would make it impossible for the state to keep any property".
Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Adoption
The first question to be addressed was the right of Congress to override minimum voting ages set by states for federal Congressional elections. Article I of the Constitution states that, in elections for the U.S. House of Representatives, "Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature". The Seventeenth Amendment extends the same requirement to elections for the U.S. Senate. Article I furthermore gives states the right prescribe the "Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives", but also states that "Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations".
Oregon v. Mitchell | Congressional elections
Senator Birch Bayh succeeded Kefauver as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments and set about advocating for a detailed amendment dealing with presidential disability.
Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Kennedy assassination
The change proposed to change the text of Article 16.2.3º from: to: In the information supplied to voters, the subject matter of the referendum was described as follows:
Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1968 | Proposed changes to the text
Although strongly urged by moderates in Congress to sign the bill, President Andrew Johnson vetoed it on March 27, 1866. In his veto message, he objected to the measure because it conferred citizenship on the freedmen at a time when 11 out of 36 states were unrepresented in the Congress, and that it discriminated in favor of African-Americans and against whites. Three weeks later, Johnson's veto was overridden and the measure became law. Despite this victory, even some Republicans who had supported the goals of the Civil Rights Act began to doubt that Congress really possessed constitutional power to turn those goals into laws.
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | Proposal by Congress
In 1844, Representative Samuel F. Vinton of Ohio proposed an amendment to the constitution that would replace the electoral college system with a lot system. The Joint Resolution called for each state to elect, by a simple majority, a presidential candidate of said state. Each state would notify Congress of the presidential election results. Congress would then inscribe the name of every state on uniform balls, equal to the number of said state's members of Congress, and deposit into a box. In a joint session of Congress, a ball would be drawn, and the elected candidate of the state of which is written on the drawn ball would be named president.
United States presidential election | Proposed changes to the election process