28th Amendment

Section 1. The seventeenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2. Senators shall be elected exclusively by the State legislature, upon a majority vote of legislators present and voting in a joint session. If a vacancy shall exist for more than one hundred-eighty days, then the Governor shall appoint the Senator to serve the remainder of the vacant term. This procedure may not be modified by initiative or referendum.

Section 3. State legislatures may issue instructions to, or recall, their Senators at any time.

Section 4. Any Senators serving at the time this amendment becomes a valid part of the Constitution shall complete their current term of office.

NOTES:

Section 1: A very simple and straight forward repeal.

Section 2:

• Exclusively elected and the prohibition on initiative or referendum is to prevent backsliding into popular advisory votes again.
• Joint session is to prevent deadlocks, and gamesmanship in the legislative bodies.
• 180 days is to keep the pressure on for a timely resolution.
• Governor appointment is to prevent deadlocks.

Section 3:

• Instructions & recall are necessary to give the States real control over their Senators. A fatal flaw in the original drafting of the Constitution.

Section 4:

• This is similar to the provision in the 17th Amendment to make it more palatable to the presently serving Senators. It allows them to finish their current terms. (And keep their campaign funds.)