The Utah Senate asked Congress to repeal the 17th Amendment, which was ratified under the Progressive’s of 1913. Utah has boldly challenged a system that was never the intent of the Founding Fathers and suggests that the 17th Amendment has resulted in Senators being bound to special interest groups, that donate enormous sums of money for the Senator’s re-election, and not representing the needs of the people of Utah.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Al Jackson of Utah, believes that Senators need to “come home every weekend and take direction from their state legislative (sic) body and from the House and the Governor on how they should vote in the upcoming week.”
Passing with 20-6 SJR2 was sent to the House. It demands that Congress repeal the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Read a history of the 17th Amendment and why Utah has made such a bold call to action on the following page.
The 17th killed the 10th
any amendment to the constitution has to ratified BY STATES… congress CAN NOT do it.. they vote then it go to EACH state, and needing 3/4 of the states to make any change…………The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America. At 5:32 p.m. EST, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the requisite three-fourths majority of states’ approval. Pennsylvania and Ohio had ratified it earlier in the day.
It can be done, exactly.
I never said it could not be done, it cant be done by congress,
I think all elections should be by popular vote.. Period.
The big revelation here is that the Utah Senate has no clue concerning the process of constitutional repeal. Congress doesn’t have that power.
I think having two representatives that are elected by the larger population of the state is better than what went on before. Finagling of voting district for state or federal elections puts to much political power in the hands of the two parties. Solve the problem of undo influence by special groups a different way. Our founding fathers were very much aware of the problem with a pure democracy and they built safeguard into our system to prevent those issues. The change in the 17th amendment fixed a problem that was not foreseen.
Agree 110% on this. Also need to amend the 22nd to include term limits for ALL elected officials.
I’ve been saying we should do this for years.
Repealing direct election of Senators would put the structure of the Federal government back where it was intended to be. It wouldn’t be the first amendment to be repealed.