Essay on The Filibuster

Filibuster, in legislative procedure, is term denoting the means employed by members of a legislative assembly to delay or prevent action on a measure to which they are opposed. Such means may include the introduction of dilatory motions, intentional absence from the assembly in order to prevent the existence of a quorum, or the presentation of abnormally long, often meaningless speeches. In the U.S. Senate, filibusters are used when a minority of senators oppose some legislative measure but do not have sufficient votes to defeat the bill. Thus, it has sometimes been argued that filibusters protect minority rights. Lengthy delays in voting in the Senate, however, can be detrimental to the rights of the majority (Molly, 2003).

The use of the filibuster in the Senate has been somewhat restricted by the adoption of regulations relating to cloture. A cloture rule, adopted by the Senate in 1917, was amended in 1949, 1959, and 1975. The latest ruling requires the vote of three-fifths of the full Senate membership to end debate. Despite these rules, filibusters have occurred on numerous occasions (Molly, 2003). The longest uninterrupted filibustering speech ever recorded in the Senate was made by Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina in August 1957, when he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to a civil rights measure. The longest filibuster since the first cloture rule was adopted by the Senate took place in 1964, when a group of southern senators led by Russell Long of Louisiana managed to extend the debate on the Civil Rights Act for 74 days.

The filibuster has a long history, but its pedigree should not make us proud. It prevented civil rights legislation from being adopted for nearly a century. Now a minority of senators is using it to prevent the Senate from voting on judicial nominees even though a majority of the senators from both parties would vote to confirm if they only could vote...........

ESSAY ON THE AMERICAS