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Providing a comprehensive interpretation of the Seventeenth Amendment based on its text, history, decisions, and congressional debates and the social and political factors underlying it. Arguing that the Amendment promoted the value of popular elections above all others but that states have been defying it by not complying with the Vacancies Clause.
Discussing the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and state legislatures’ election of senators. Also discussing the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment before turning to analyze the Judge v. Quinn decision and its implication for other state statues. Arguing that the decision’s requirement for special elections is inconsistent with the legislative history of the Amendment and was not the evil the framers sought to prevent.
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