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filibuster

  • 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.

  • 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."

  • 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."

  • 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."

  • 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? 

  • 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? 

  • 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. 

  • 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. 

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • 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.

  • 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.