About this video
The filibuster is not in the Constitution; it grew out of an 1806 Senate rule change that let senators keep talking to block votes. In 1917 the Senate created cloture (Rule 22), letting two-thirds end a filibuster, and in 1975 that was cut to three-fifths (60 votes). Once used mainly to block civil rights bills, the filibuster has become a routine partisan tool, though it was removed for judicial and other nominations in 2013 and for Supreme Court nominations under President Trump.
You'll be able to
- explain how the filibuster began as an accidental Senate rule change rather than a constitutional rule.
- describe cloture and how the vote needed to end a filibuster changed in 1917 and 1975.
- explain how the filibuster was used against civil rights bills and how its use has changed since 1975.
- identify what the filibuster no longer applies to after 2013 and the Trump-era change.
Key words
- filibuster
- A tactic in the Senate where senators keep debate going to delay or block a vote on a bill.
- cloture
- A Senate vote (Rule 22) to end debate and stop a filibuster.
- supermajority
- A required vote larger than a simple majority, such as two-thirds or three-fifths.
- nuclear option
- The 2013 move by Senate Democrats to end the filibuster for federal judges and appointees (except the Supreme Court) by majority vote.
- two-track system
- A 1970s change that let the Senate work on other business while a filibuster was going on.
Transcript
Filibuster. Interestingly enough, even though today we think it's a constitutional principles, not. One of the great scholars of this subject, Sarah Binder from George Washington University and Brookings has written a lot about this. It almost happens as an accident that both the House and Senate start with rules that allow the majority to cut off debate, allow majorities to really make decisions. But by the early 19th century, around 1806, the Senate starts to shift course and basically alter the rules, not thinking through how it will affect the institution, but opening the door for a senator to keep talking and talking and making it very difficult to stop them. Essentially no rule where the majority can say, shut up, sit down, you're done.
By the mid 19th century you're starting to see more of this talking and more of these efforts to obstruct what the majority wants to do. People don't have an exact date for the first filibuster. It's often dated to 1841, although I've seen that disputed as well. Then the next big moment comes in in 1917. This is really when the modern filibuster is born because President Woodrow Wilson is frustrated with a group of senators who are filibustering his legislation to arm shifts that are going to be involved in the war taking place in Europe. Wilson is furious and he talks about this group of senators that's holding up the business. His allies create this rule, Rule 22 called cloture. It says that two-thirds of the Senate can vote to stop a filibuster. Two-thirds of the Senate, if you can get that,
that's a super majority can vote to say Senator A and Senator A's allies, they're done. They can't hold up the legislation any longer. After that time you have a filibuster, it's used sporadically. It's not used all the time. Most of the business of the senate through the 1970s is done by majority vote, including very controversial issues like Medicare in 1965. The filibuster is primarily between 1917 and say, 1964. It's a tool that's deployed by Southern conservatives in the Democratic Party who work with Republican allies to stop civil rights bills. Basically, Northern liberals could not get two-thirds of the Senate to come on board with civil rights legislation. This is why a lot of civil rights organizations in the 1950s and early 1960s prioritize filibuster reform. They think that if you don't have filibuster reform, you're never going to get civil rights legislation. Many liberals, such as Hubert Humphrey,
a senator from Minnesota, who was elected in 1948, make filibuster reform a central topic throughout this period, they want to have a majority vote. That if you get a majority, filibuster is over. You finally get filibuster reform in 1975, when the Democratic Congress working with Vice President Nelson Rockefeller can't get a majority system, but what they do is they reduce the number from two-thirds to three-fifths. The Senate, which is essentially 67-60 votes, which is something it's seen as a victory. They also create, in this period, a two track system, meaning a filibuster can be happening, but the Senate can still work on other issues which before was not possible. But the history of the filibuster since '75,
went in a very different direction than reformers hoped for. What we have now seen is filibustering becoming a normal tool of partisan politics. Filibusters happen all the time, not just on high-profile legislation, but on almost anything. Budget legislation, personal bills that one senator puts up that another senator wants to stop. The result has been until 2013, really a 60 vote rule in the Senate where you need 60 votes on almost any bill, that's what the parties expect, anticipate and believed to be normal. Then finally, we've had some filibuster reform again. In 2013, the Democrats under Senator Harry Reid are so frustrated with how Republicans are holding up President Obama's judicial confirmations that they get rid of the filibuster. It was called the nuclear option for federal judges,
not the Supreme Court and other federal appointees. Then a few years later, when President Trump is in office, Republicans do away with the filibuster for Supreme Court nomination. We still have the filibuster. It no longer applies to the courts and it no longer applies to federal appointees. It's become really a big part of congressional politics, which again is amazing because it wasn't part of the original design.
It shows how this institution evolves in dramatic ways.
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