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A filibuster is a tactic used in the United States Senate to delay or block a vote on a measure by preventing debate on it from ending. The Senate's rules place few restrictions on debate; in general, if no other senator is speaking, a senator who seeks recognition is entitled to speak for as long as they wish. Only when debate concludes can the measure be put to a vote.
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On August 28, 1957, Strom Thurmond, then a Democratic United States senator from South Carolina, began a filibuster intended to prevent the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The filibuster—an extended speech designed to stall legislation—began at 8:54 p.m. and lasted until 9:12 p.m. the following day, a duration of 24 hours and 18 minutes. This made the filibuster the longest single-person filibuster in United States Senate history, a record that still stands as of 2024. The filibuster focused primarily on asserting that the bill in question, which provided for expanded federal protection of African American voting rights, was both unnecessary and unconstitutional, and Thurmond recited from documents including the election laws of each U.S. state, Supreme Court decisions, and George Washington's Farewell Address. Thurmond focused on a particular provision in the bill that dealt with certain court cases, but opposed the entirety of the bill.
References
- ↑ Strand, Mark; Lang, Tim (April 1, 2014). "Cracks in the Senatorial Saucer: Filling the Tree, Cloture, and Curtailing Senate Debate".
- ↑ "Majority and Minority Leaders and Party Whips". United States Senate. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
- ↑ "Capitol Questions". C-Span. May 2000. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
- ↑ Ilona-Nickels, Ask An Expert: Filling the Tree, September 23, 2010, "", October 19, 2010
- ↑ "Elizabeth Warren, David Vitter Make Last-Minute Press Against Reid on 'Wall Street Giveaway'". HuffPost . December 12, 2014.