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Emmet Bondurant

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    Congress

    Presidential outcome may portend the Senate filibuster’s finish

    Michael Golden
    Emmet Bondurant
    February 28, 2020
    Presidential outcome may portend the Senate filibuster’s finish

    "The delay tactic of filibustering was actually an accident of history that came about in 1807," write Michael Golden and Emmet Bondurant.

    Zach Gibson/Getty Images

    Golden is the author of "Unlock Congress" and a senior fellow at the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy. He is also a member of The Fulcrum's editorial advisory board. Bondurant has argued several cases before the Supreme Court and represented Common Cause in an unsuccessful 2010 lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the filibuster.

    Buried in the vortex of voices shouting at each other during this week's South Carolina debate were two consecutive answers in which Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg both announced support for a simple rule change that would be a game-changer for the American people: Finally putting an end to the filibuster.

    For several years we've been making the legal argument that the cloture rules of the Senate, who now require 60 votes instead of a simple majority to advance legislation, are unconstitutional. Neither lawmaking nor executive branch appointments were included by the Framers in the five scenarios they laid out requiring supermajorities.

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