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8 

ARIZONA STATE LEGISLATURE v. ARIZONA 

INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMM’N
 
ROBERTS, C. J., dissenting
 

tions  about  what  “the  Legislature”  must  mean.    But  the 
most powerful evidence of all comes from the Seventeenth 
Amendment.  Under  the  original  Constitution,  Senators 
were “chosen by the Legislature” of each State, Art. I, §3, 
cl. 1, while Members of the House of Representatives were
chosen  “by  the  People,”  Art. I,  §2,  cl. 1.    That  distinction 
was critical to the Framers.  As James Madison explained,
the  Senate  would  “derive  its  powers  from  the  States,” 
while the House would “derive its powers from the people
of America.”  The Federalist No. 39, at 244.  George Mason
believed  that  the  power  of  state  legislatures  to  select 
Senators  would  “be  a  reasonable  guard”  against  “the
Danger  . . .  that  the  national,  will  swallow  up  the  State
Legislatures.”  1  Records  of  the  Federal  Convention  of 
1787, p. 160 (M. Farrand ed. 1911).  Not everyone agreed.
James Wilson proposed allowing the people to elect Sena-
tors  directly.    His  proposal  was  rejected  ten  to  one.    De-
bates in the Federal Convention of 1787, S. Doc. No. 404, 
57th Cong., 1st Sess., 8 (1902). 

Before  long,  reformers  took  up  Wilson’s  mantle  and 
launched  a  protracted  campaign  to  amend  the  Constitu-
tion.  That  effort  began  in  1826,  when  Representative 
Henry Storrs of New York proposed—but then set aside—
a  constitutional  amendment  transferring  the  power  to
elect Senators from the state legislatures to the people.  2 
Cong. Deb. 1348–1349.  Over the next three-quarters of a 
century,  no  fewer  than  188  joint  resolutions  proposing 
similar  reforms  were  introduced  in  both  Houses  of  Con-
gress.  1  W.  Hall,  The  History  and  Effect  of  the  Seven-
teenth Amendment 183–184 (1936).

At  no  point  in  this  process  did  anyone  suggest  that  a
constitutional amendment was unnecessary because “Leg-
islature”  could  simply  be  interpreted  to  mean  “people.”
See Hawke, 253 U. S., at 228 (“It was never suggested, so
far as we are aware, that the purpose of making the office
of Senator elective by the people could be accomplished by