Senate

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/5/2022
  

  The Racist Origins of Georgia's Runoff System

  by Steven F. Lawson

  Runoff elections were installed in Georgia to ensure that Black voters could not elect their preferred candidates, allowing white voters a second chance to consolidate support around white candidates. 

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• SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
  4/7/2022
  

  Historic Echoes as Mississippi Senators Vote No on Jackson Nomination

  Did some statements made by Republicans echo Senator James Eastland's questioning whether Thurgood Marshall was "prejudiced against the white people of the South"? 

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• SOURCE: Letters from an American
  3/26/2022
  

  KBJ Confirmation Questions Show Republicans Willing to Throw Out Vast Swaths of Civil Rights Law

  by Heather Cox Richardson

  "Madison was on to something when he warned that there was a connection between establishing a religion and destroying American democracy."

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• SOURCE: Politico
  3/22/2022
  

  12 Questions that Would Actually Help Us Learn Something about Ketanji Brown Jackson

  Legal historians, law professors, and other scholars propose productive questions Senators could ask Biden's Supreme Court nominee, if they cared to stop grandstanding and speechifying.

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• SOURCE: Forward
  3/8/2022
  

  Sen. Ron Johnson Blocks Lipstadt Nomination to Global Antisemitism Panel

  The Wisconsin Republican instead met with representatives of the trucker protest convoy. 

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• SOURCE: Forward
  1/31/2022
  

  Will Senate Move Deborah Lipstadt Appointment to Global Antisemitism Panel?

  Leading American Jewish organizations have stressed the need for leadership and scholarship in the face of antisemitic incidents worldwide, and urged the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to advance Dr. Lipstadt's nomination. 

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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: 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 Monthly
  12/8/2021
  

  Bob Dole: RIP to an Organization Man and Veteran

  by Matthew Cooper

  A veteran political reporter acknowledges that the late Senator and presidential candidate could be a tough partisan, but was devoted to fighting within the rules of procedure. 

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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: Washington Post
  10/1/2021
  

  Mint the Coin: The Debt Ceiling is an Absurd Problem. It's Time for an Absurd Solution

  by Zachary D. Carter

  Silly as it sounds, minting a trillion dollar coin is the solution to the recurrent ordeal of the debt ceiling. It's legal, it's sensible, and it's not more ridiculous than using the prospect of default as a political club. 

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• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  10/1/2021
  

  The Disturbing Precedent for McConnell’s Debt-Ceiling Brinksmanship

  by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

  Mitch McConnell's use of Senate rules and the body's disproportionate representation to ensure that Democrats who represent 41.5 million more people than Republicans are unable to govern. His tactics echo those of the antebellum Slavocracy. 

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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: Washington Post
  9/14/2021
  

  Why Can't our Political System Address our Biggest Problems? Blame the Founders

  by Max Boot

  From COVID to guns to infant mortality to health care, the United States does worse than other industrial democracies at managing basic problems. It's time to recognize that design flaws of the system are a big part of the problem. 

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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: 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. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/12/2021
  

  The Media will be Key to Overcoming a Senate Filibuster on Voting Rights

  by Donald A. Ritchie

  "From the Boston Massacre to Watergate, the power of the media became manifest whenever editors and reporters, convinced of the seriousness of their cause, kept a story alive until they forced people to pay attention." TV journalist Roger Mudd kept the story of the Senate's filibuster of the Civil Rights Act in the public eye.