Can Vice President Kamala Harris end the filibuster by declaring it unconstitutional?
VERY interesting article on DK, and link to the Op-Ed in the LA Times that inspired it.
some snips:
There is a clear next step in changing the Senate filibuster: Vice President Kamala Harris, as presiding officer of the Senate, can and should declare the current Senate filibuster rule unconstitutional. This would open the door for discussions on a new rule that would respect the minority without giving it an unconstitutional veto.
*snip*
In 1957, Vice President Richard Nixon, sitting as presiding officer of the Senate, issued two advisory opinions holding that a crucial provision of the Senates filibuster rule requiring two-thirds vote to amend it was unconstitutional. Nixons constitutional determination was reaffirmed by subsequent vice presidents Hubert Humphrey and Nelson Rockefeller. In fact, it was this ruling that allowed both the Democratic-controlled Senate in 2013 and the Republican-controlled Senate in 2017 by a simple majority vote to eliminate filibusters for all executive and judicial nominees.
Harris possesses the same power to rule that the current version of the Senate filibuster, which essentially establishes a 60-vote supermajority rule to enact legislation in the Senate, is unconstitutional because it denies states equal Suffrage in the Senate in violation of Article V of the Constitution.