Law Commons^™

The Irony Of Constitutional Democracy: Federalism, The Supreme Court, And The Seventeenth Amendment, Ralph A. Rossum

San Diego Law Review

The thesis of this Article can be stated briefly: The founding generation clearly understood that federalism would be protected primarily by the mode of electing the United States Senate. The adoption and ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment, providing for direct election of the Senate,' changed all that. The Seventeenth Amendment was ultimately approved by the United States Congress and ratified by the states to make the Constitution more democratic. Progressives argued forcefully, persistently, and successfully that the democratic principle required the Senate to be elected directly by the people rather than indirectly through their state legislatures. The consequences of the …