Filibuster

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Filibustering is behavior intended to delay the legislative process for strategic gain. In modern politics, filibustering is most likely to occur in the U.S. Senate because senators may speak for as long as they wish. As a result, senators have made speeches lasting several hours in order to slow the progress of bills they oppose. The longest single speech in Senate history is Strom Thurmond’s speech against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Thurmond spoke for twenty-four hours and eighteen minutes.

Filibustering is not limited to long speeches, however, nor does it occur only in the U.S. Senate. Legislators also filibuster by making procedural motions to force unnecessary votes. Another popular tactic, known as a “disappearing quorum,” occurs when legislators refuse to vote on a bill in the hope that less than a quorum (i.e. the minimum number of legislators who must participate for a legislature to make a decision) of legislators will participate in the vote. During the nineteenth century, members of the U.S. House filibustered often and enthusiastically, a tradition that was suppressed by drastic precedents and rule changes in the 1890s. In 2003 Democrats in the Texas legislature left the state to avoid participating in a vote on altering congressional district boundaries. Since the Texas Constitution requires two-thirds of each chamber to constitute a quorum, the Texas Democrats were able to stall the redistricting plan for months. Finally, filibustering occurs in non-U.S. legislatures as well. For example, filibustering has occurred in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan during the final days of legislative sessions.

The Senate adopted a “cloture” rule to limit filibustering in 1917. Initially, the rule required a two-thirds majority to limit debate, and if cloture was approved each senator was limited to one additional hour of speaking. After several modifications between 1949 and 1986, the current version of the cloture rule allows a three-fifths majority to limit debate to a total of thirty hours for most issues, with a two-thirds majority necessary for rules changes. Additionally, senators have adopted rules and passed laws exempting a number of key issues, such as trade agreements and key budget legislation, from filibustering.

Despite these limits, filibustering has become increasingly common in the Senate. In the early twentieth century, filibusters were rare and typically occurred at the end of a legislative session. In addition, they were generally directed at budgetary or economic legislation. From the 1930s to the 1960s, filibusters were often used against civil rights legislation, but otherwise they were rare. But since about 1970, filibusters have become commonplace in the Senate. This change coincided with a tactical shift in Senate filibustering. While senators had historically been forced to physically occupy the chamber floor during a filibuster—as depicted in the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington —during the 1960s and 1970s filibustering became less overt. Instead, senators typically threaten to filibuster as a strategic ploy, without ever actively filibustering on the Senate floor. Rather than waste the time of the chamber, Senate leaders typically avoid overt filibusters by compromising over the content of legislation and the terms of debate.

More recently, senators have disputed whether it is appropriate to filibuster judicial appointments. During President George W. Bush’s first term, ten out of forty-four nominations for the federal appeals courts were blocked by Democratic senators. Senate Republicans responded by threatening to use the “constitutional” or “nuclear” option of revising Senate precedents to allow majority cloture on judicial nominations. This controversy was defused by a bipartisan agreement in May 2005 to only allow filibusters against judicial nominations in “extreme circumstances.” The seven Republicans and seven Democrats who negotiated this agreement, who tended to be moderates within their party, were known as the “Gang of 14.”

SEE ALSO Congress, U.S.; Thurmond, Strom

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Binder, Sarah A., and Steven S. Smith. 1997. Politics or Principle? Filibustering in the U.S. Senate. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

Burdette, Franklin L. 1940. Filibustering in the Senate. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Dion, Douglas. 1997. Turning the Legislative Thumbscrew: Minority Rights and Procedural Change in Legislative Politics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Krehbiel, Keith. 1998. Pivotal Politics: A Theory of U.S. Lawmaking. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gregory Koger

filibuster n.
1. a person engaged in unauthorized warfare against a foreign state.

2. an action such as prolonged speaking that obstructs progress in a legislative assembly in a way that does not technically contravene the required procedures.
v.
1. act in an obstructive manner in a legislative assembly, especially by speaking at inordinate length: several measures were killed by Republican filibustering.

2. obstruct (a measure) in such a way.
late 18th century: from French filibuster, first applied to pirates who pillaged the Spanish colonies in the West Indies. In the mid 19th century (via Spanish filibustero), the term denoted American adventurers who incited revolution in several Latin American states, whence sense 1. The verb was used to describe tactics intended to sabotage U.S. congressional proceedings, whence sense 2.

fil·i·bus·ter / ˈfiləˌbəstər/ • n. 1. an action such as a prolonged speech that obstructs progress in a legislative assembly while not technically contravening the required procedures: it was defeated by a Senate filibuster in June. 2. hist. a person engaging in unauthorized warfare against a foreign country. • v. [intr.] [often as n.] (filibustering) act in an obstructive manner in a legislature, esp. by speaking at inordinate length: several measures were killed by Republican filibustering. ∎  [tr.] obstruct (a measure) in such a way.

filibuster an action such as prolonged speaking which obstructs progress in a legislative assembly in a way that does not technically contravene the required procedures.

The word comes from French flibustier, first applied to pirates who pillaged the Spanish colonies in the West Indies. In the mid 19th century (via Spanish filibustero), the term denoted American adventurers who incited revolution in several Latin American states. The verb was used to describe tactics intended to sabotage US congressional proceedings.

FILIBUSTER

A tactic used by a legislative representative to hinder and delay consideration of and action to be taken on a proposed bill through prolonged, irrelevant, and procrastinating speeches on the floor of the House, Senate, or other legislative body.

A filibuster is stopped by cloture, a legislative procedure that enables a vote to be taken on the proposed measure.

filibuster Method of frustrating the action of a legislative assembly by making long speeches. It has particular reference to debates in the US Senate, which did not have any method for voting to end debate until 1917. Since then a two-thirds majority is required to close a debate, thereby allowing a minority to prevent a vote on legislation that they oppose.

filibuster piratical adventurer. XVI. (flibutor, fleebuter). The ult. source is Du. vrijbuiter FREEBOOTER; later (XVIII) — F. flibustier, succeeded (XIX) by the present form — Sp. filibustero.
Hence as vb. XIX.

filibuster, a name under which buccaneers were originally known in Britain. It owes its derivation to the Dutch vrijbuiter (freebooter), translated into French as flibustier, and from there into English as filibuster.

filibuster •exploiter, goitre (US goiter), loiter, reconnoitre (US reconnoiter), Reuter •anointer, appointer, jointer, pointer •cloister, hoister, oyster, roister •accoutre (US accouter), commuter, computer, disputer, hooter, looter, neuter, pewter, polluter, recruiter, refuter, rooter, saluter, scooter, shooter, souter, suitor, tooter, transmuter, tutor, uprooter •booster, rooster •doomster • freebooter • sharpshooter •peashooter • six-shooter •troubleshooter • prosecutor •persecutor • prostitutor •telecommuter •footer, putter •Gupta • Worcester • Münster •pussyfooter • executor •contributor, distributor •collocutor, interlocutor •abutter, aflutter, butter, Calcutta, clutter, constructor, cutter, flutter, gutter, mutter, nutter, scutter, shutter, splutter, sputter, strutter, stutter, utter •abductor, conductor, destructor, instructor, obstructor •insulter •Arunta, Bunter, chunter, Grantha, grunter, Gunter, hunter, junta, punter, shunter •corrupter, disrupter, interrupter •sculptor •adjuster, Augusta, bluster, buster, cluster, Custer, duster, fluster, lustre (US luster), muster, thruster, truster •huckster • Ulster • dumpster •funster, Munster, punster •funkster, youngster •gangbuster • filibuster • blockbuster •semiconductor • headhunter •woodcutter •lacklustre (US lackluster)