The Filibuster Explained (Simplified)

The Senate filibuster is not part of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution assumes that the Senate will pass or reject legislative bills by a simple majority vote. 

But the Constitution also allows the House and Senate to adopt their own internal process rules for how they conduct business – and that's where we get the filibuster. The filibuster is governed by Senate Rule 22 which has been changed and amended by the senators many times in the past (and it could be repealed at any time by the senators). Today's version of Rule 22 is quite different from the version that was in effect during the great civil rights debates of the 1960s – but the essence remains the same, it is still a tool used by right-wing extremists and white-supremacists to deny equal rights and racial justice to all Americans. 

Under current rules, senators first have to vote to begin debating a bill, and then vote again to stop debate and take an “Aye” or “Nay” vote to adopt or reject the bill. Under the current version of Rule 22, a single senator can file a notice requiring that a motion to begin debating a bill, or move to a final vote on a bill, must receive 60 votes in order to go ahead. Filing that notice is now commonly referred to as “filibustering.” During the Trump regime, McConnell used Rule 22 many times to prevent legislation passed by House Democrats from ever even being discussed in the Senate. 

Once senators have finished debating a bill and 60 have voted to end a second filibuster by agreeing to vote “Aye” or “Nay” on it, the bill itself can be passed or defeated by a simple majority -- 51 senators if everyone is present and voting. 

When senators vote to proceed with debating or voting on a bill, our sloppy news media refers to that as “voting to end the filibuster.” But those votes are a normal part of the filibuster system, they only lift a particular filibuster holding up a single bill. Both Democratic and Republican senators – even Manchin, Sinema, and Feinstein – cast those kind of routine “end the filibuster” votes all the time. 

Yesterday (Tuesday, June 22), Republicans used the filibuster to prevent debate on the For the People Act. All 50 Democratic senators -- including Manchin, Sinema, and Feinstein -- voted against this instance of the filibuster. But against them were all 50 Republicans, so without 60 votes the filibuster held. To lift a filibuster barrier from any meaningful voting rights bill would take 10 Republicans joining all 50 Democrats. It is now clear that will never happen. 

Schumer vowed to come back and try again to pass voting right legislation at a later time. That can only be done by abolishing (or significantly reforming) the filibuster-system. Which can be done by simple majority -- if all 50 Democratic senators stand together to do it. Since no one yesterday attempted to end the filibuster system, it appears that all 50 Democrats are not yet united on doing so. Until all 50 Democratic senators are willing to move against the filibuster system, filibusters will prevent voting rights bills from passing in the Senate. And that will free Republican-dominated state legislatures -- where no filibusters are allowed -- to ram through anti-democracy bills by narrow partisan majorities.