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James Pearson, ultimately proposed a bipartisan compromise to reduce the threshold for cloture from a vote of two-thirds of the chamber to a vote of three-fifths-the current 60-vote threshold. 23 Mondale, however, along with Kansas Republican Sen. Walter Mondale of Minnesota, wanted a cloture rule that required only a majority vote. Some reformers, including Democratic Sen. 22 This created renewed pressure for reform. 21 There had never been more than five filibusters in a single year prior to 1966, but there were 10 each year from 1971 to 1973 and 18 filibusters in 1974. In the early 1970s, the filibuster became more common and was used to block a broader range of legislation. 19 Seven years later, the ultimately unsuccessful effort to obstruct the Civil Rights Act of 1964 lasted a total of 74 days and received major ongoing news coverage-ultimately helping to galvanize the public and break through the Southern opposition to civil rights. Strom Thurmond set a record by holding the Senate floor continually for 24 hours and 18 minutes. During the filibuster of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, then-Democratic Sen. Some of the most notorious filibusters in American history were against the Civil Rights Acts of 19. 16 These anti-civil rights filibusters were often justified with “inflated rhetoric about an alleged Senate tradition of respecting minority rights and the value of extended debate on issues of great importance.” 17 But belying this rhetoric, conservatives during this period generally refrained from engaging in filibusters on issues other than civil rights. From the late 1920s through the 1960s, the filibuster was primarily used by Southern senators to block legislation that would have protected civil rights 15-anti-lynching bills bills prohibiting poll taxes and bills prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing, and voting. The one issue for which the filibuster proved a major obstacle in the decades that followed was civil rights. 13 For almost 50 years after the adoption of the new rules, cloture votes to end debate were exceedingly rare. The new rules included what the senators termed a cloture motion, which allowed senators, by a vote of two-thirds of those present, to limit debate to one hour before proceeding to a majority vote on a bill. 10 Shortly thereafter, President Woodrow Wilson made a statement, published in The New York Times, stating that “he Senate of the United States is the only legislative body in the world which cannot act when its majority is ready for action.” 11 Referring to the 11 senators as “a little group of willful men,” Wilson stated, “The only remedy is that the rules of the Senate shall be so altered that it can act.” 12ĭays later, the Senate met in a special session to consider rules that would break the logjam and allow the Senate to act. During World War I, before the United States had entered the war, a group of 11 senators filibustered a bill that would have armed American merchant ships to protect them from attacks by German U-boats. The modern-day filibuster is largely the product of two significant reforms: one in 1917 and another in 1974. In fact, “almost every filibustered measure before 1880 was eventually passed.” 9 When senators did so, it served more to delay legislation than to defeat it. 7 Still, the filibuster was not commonly used-”in general, legislation passed by majority rule.” 8 One reason may have been that, in order to sustain a filibuster, senators had to actually stand on the Senate floor and continue to speak-not an easy exercise to maintain indefinitely.
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The term filibuster entered use even later, in the 1850s, when it described the practice of senators giving lengthy speeches to delay a vote on a bill. 5 The first filibuster did not occur until more than 30 years later in 1837. 4 And when that rule was eliminated, in 1806, it appears that it was by mistake-senators were merely cleaning up their rulebook, on the advice of Vice President Aaron Burr, and did not realize that they had opened the door to unlimited obstruction. Until 1806, a Senate rule allowed a simple majority to end debate on a bill and move to a vote. history, the Senate operated essentially by majority rule. 2 The evidence suggests that the filibuster arose not out of any founding principles but instead out of “tenuous precedents and informal practices.” 3 Constitution make no mention of the filibuster, it also appears to assume that legislative decisions would be made by majority vote. There is a stubborn myth that the filibuster is part of the Founders’ vision of government.