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The Constitutionality Of Eliminating Or Restricting U.S. Senate Primaries Under The Seventeenth Amendment, Megan Duthie

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

A century ago, Tennessee lent her signature to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment, which altered how a United States senator was chosen from legislative appointment to popular choice.' Today, some political factions are calling for a complete repeal of the amendment, while others are taking smaller steps toward entrenching more power within state legislatures at the expense of the power granted to the voting public under the Seventeenth Amendment.

Tennessee is one state that has taken steps toward diminishing the role of the Seventeenth Amendment in the selection of United States senators. As introduced earlier this year, Senate Bill …