Ramifications of Repealing the 17th AmendmentThe 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, replaced the election of U.S. senators by state legislators with the current system of direct election by the people. In this article, Professors Todd Zywicki and Ilya Somin of George Mason University School of Law debate whether repealing the 17th Amendment would restore the principles of federalism to the constitutional system by increasing state power, or whether repeal would have little if any effect on the respective powers of the federal government and the states.