What is a filibuster and why should I care?

Sen. Cory Booker has taken over the U.S. Senate to protest the impact of Trump administration policies on regular Americans, but is it a filibuster?

Sen. Cory Booker’s all-night (and day) takeover of the Senate is not a filibuster. It’s a one-man protest of the Trump administration, an answer to the people of this country who say Congress isn’t doing enough to fight the harm the new president is causing across this country and around the world.

Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on Unsplash

A lot of journalists are writing about Booker’s remarkable demonstration and you can watch it on YouTube right now. Try standing up while you watch and see how long you last. I’m not even standing while I write this.

My post today is in answer to a question from one of my readers – my husband actually – about the rules for filibusters and whether they have changed over the years.

First, in case you’re wondering, Booker’s speech is not a filibuster because he is not acting to stop a vote on a piece of legislation to which he or she objects. Senators are required to stick to topics related to the bill being debated and they cannot eat, drink or use the restroom during their extended speech. They’re also not supposed to sit or lean on their desk or chair while speaking. They can take questions from their colleagues, which gives them a break from speaking, but I don’t think they can use those moments to take a bathroom break or grab a snack.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the use of the filibuster has grown recently and has effectively set a new 60-vote supermajority requirement to pass controversial legislation, because it can be shut down by a vote of 60 senators. In 1917, the Senate passed Rule XXII, or the cloture rule, to allow Senators to stop a filibuster with a vote of two-thirds of the body. In 1975, the Senate reduced that requirement to 60 votes. The Senate has passed a few exceptions to this rule over the years, including budget reconciliation, trade agreements using fast-track rules and military base closures.

By the way, the filibuster is only allowed in the Senate by that chamber’s own rules. It is controversial for a number of reasons, but modern Democrats have noted that one of the most popular uses of filibuster has been to block much needed reforms of civil rights laws to address racial discrimination.

That’s one of the reasons former President Barack Obama has called the filibuster a “Jim Crow relic,” because it has been used to block voting reforms. The longest filibuster so far was South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. That speech lasted for more than 24 hours, when the rules about eating, drinking and bathroom breaks were a bit more relaxed.

Stopping civil rights legislation was one of the primary uses of the filibuster during the 20th century, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. A study by political scientists Sarah Binder and Steven Smith shows that of 30 bills stopped by a filibuster between 1917 and 1994, half of them involved civil rights. Those measures included anti-lynching bills, proposals to prohibit poll taxes and bills to stop employment, housing and voting discrimination.

According to the Senate’s own history, the number of cloture votes to stop a long debate — not just filibusters — has gone up dramatically in recent decades. From 80 cloture motions filed during the 1993-1994 congressional session to 266 during 2023-2024 and 336 during 2021-2022. Although the numbers go up when Republicans are in the majority, but both parties have employed filibusters and long debates in the Senate are not unusual.

I’m going to stop there because I want to post this while Booker is still talking. Please comment if you have questions and I’ll do my best to answer them. And all my subscribers can offer suggestions of topics to cover in Civics for Adults; you don’t need to be related. Leave suggestions in the subscriber chat.