If the 17th Amendment had never been ratified then the entire Senate would probably have fired a warning shot over the heads of the Supremes by reminding activist justices that the Constitutions silence about marriage means that marriage is a 10th Amendment-protected state power issue.
The Senate could also be expected to clarify that attempting to legislate the so-called right of gay marriage from the bench as justices did with the so-called right to have an abortion could result in their removal from the bench and a possible new amendment to the Constitution clarifying that no marriage other than traditional one man, one woman marriages are acceptable.
Actually, if the 17th Amendment had never been ratified then there would likely be all different faces on the Supreme Court today, conservative justices probably deciding not to accept the case in the first place because marriage is a 10th Amendment-protected state power issue.
The 17th Amendment needs to disappear.
Do you believe that a State cane declare, and compel adherence to, the proposition that two men or two women are "married" to each other?