filibuster

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• SOURCE: Saturday Evening Post
  1/14/2022
  

  The Filibuster Protects the Powerful, Not Vulnerable Minorities

  by Ben Railton

  The regular use of the filibuster in the 20th century paralleled its use as a tool to frustrate the political goals of labor and civil rights activists.

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• SOURCE: Substack
  1/17/2022
  

  Of Course the Federal Government Can Regulate Elections

  by Heather Cox Richardson

  The Constitution not only enables, but requires the federal government to act when state authority violates the principles of democracy, something President Harry Truman realized in 1946.

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• SOURCE: CNN
  1/17/2022
  

  The White Moderates King Warned About

  by Victor Ray

  "By blocking voting reform today, Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are the White moderates Dr. King warned us about."

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  1/17/2022
  

  Manchin and Sinema are Fulfilling John Roberts's Vision

  by Ronald Brownstein

  "Roberts, who served as a young clerk to conservative Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist and as a Justice Department assistant in the Reagan administration, has long expressed hostility to federal oversight of voting and election rules."

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• SOURCE: WBUR
  1/11/2021
  

  Julian Zelizer Joins "Here and Now" to Discuss Biden Voting Rights Push

  How will Biden deliver a planned speech on voting rights under the shadow of the filibuster? Will it sway reluctant Democrats like Manchin and Sinema? 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/7/2022
  

  Ornstein: Five Filibuster Myths

  "Supporters of the status quo have their reasons, many of them caught up in myths about the history of the Constitution and the Senate’s role."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/11/2022
  

  Biden to Endorse Changing Filibuster Rules for Voting Rights Legislation

  The President is expected to endorse limited changes to the filibuster rules to enable a straight majority vote on voting rights legislation, while perserving the filibuster for other legislation. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/4/2022
  

  "A Minority of Misguided Senators": MLK on the Filibuster

  “I think the tragedy is that we have a Congress with a Senate that has a minority of misguided senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting. They won’t let the majority senators vote."

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/17/2021
  

  The Dangers of Compromise on Voting Rights

  by Rachel Shelden

  Are moderate Democrats seeking bipartisan support for voting rights legislation repeating the errors of the antebellum legislators who misunderstood the South's commitment to securing slavery at any cost including secession? 

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• 10/17/2021
  

  West Virginia's Founding Politicians Understood Democracy Better than Today's

  by Daniel W. Sunshine

  The filibuster, as currently constructed, violates what West Virginia founder Waitman Willey described as “the great fundamental political right of the majority to rule.” West Virginia’s quest to improve their democracy offers lessons on how to heal our own.

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• SOURCE: Governing
  10/13/2021
  

  How Did the Senate Get Supermajority Gridlock?

  by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

  The framers clearly intended for majority rule in the passage of legislation in the Senate. So how did we get to the point where a majority can't do anything? 

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• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  9/20/2021
  

  No, John Calhoun Didn't Invent the Filibuster

  by Robert Elder

  A new book castigating the filibuster traces it back to the parliamentary maneuvers of pro-slavery ideologue John C. Calhoun. One needn't embrace either Calhoun or the filibuster to recognize this is historically incorrect. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  9/3/2021
  

  The Filibuster is an Anti-Worker Rule, Too

  by Emily DiVito and Suzanne Kahn

  Since 1948, the filibuster has blocked three major labor reform bills affecting "right to work" laws, streamlining the union recognition process, and protecting workers from retaliation during labor disputes. Eliminating it is critical for economic justice. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/30/2021
  

  Bouie: Manchin and Sinema Have Their History Wrong

  Bipartisan support for 1960s civil rights legislation was an artifact of a fleeting moment of ideological diversity within the two parties. When it comes to voting and civil rights laws, partisan polarization has been the historical norm, and it's nothing to fear now when ballot access is at risk across the nation.

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• SOURCE: KAKE
  6/28/2021
  

  Ron Brownstein: What Manchin and Sinema Can Learn from Lincoln Republicans on Voting Rights

  It's increasingly clear that the choice isn't between partisan and bipartisan legislation to protect voting rights, but between partisan legislation and none. But the 14th and 15th Amendments were themselves partisan. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  6/14/2021
  

  Rand Paul Offers an Accidentally Useful Jim Crow Analogy in Rationalizing His Party’s Illiberal Shift

  Rand Paul's comments that Jim Crow laws were a product of democracy reveals the degree to which he and the Republican Party seek to justify their antidemocratic approach to election law. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  6/7/2021
  

  Save Democracy: Abolish the Senate

  by Michael Tomasky

  Great Britain made the wise choice of diminishing the political power of the House of Lords. The New Republic's editor says that the history of Parliament and Congress shows it's time to do the same to the Senate. 

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• SOURCE: Oxford University Press Blog
  5/17/2021
  

  The Senate’s Unchanging Rules

  by Donald A. Ritchie

  Continued obstructionism is likely to push the Democrats to more radical alteration of Senate rules, including the filibuster, says the long-tenured Senate Historian.

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• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  5/11/2021
  

  Academics Address the Filibuster

  Seth Cotlar notes that history doesn't directly inform present action, but since advocates for retaining the filibuster had used many bad historical claims in their arguments it is only fair for historians to weigh in on the debate. 

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• SOURCE: Scholars For Reform
  5/4/2021
  

  Scholars For Reform Sends Open Letter to U.S. Senate Urging Filibuster Reform

  Historians are among the scholars urging the Senate to reform the filibuster, arguing that a supermajority requirement to pass legislation is unsupported by the historical evidence of the framers' intentions and today distributes power in an undemocratic way.