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FalloutShelter

(11,750 posts)
Tue Mar 23, 2021, 09:16 AM Mar 2021

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 Senate’s filibuster rule — requiring two-thirds vote to amend it — was unconstitutional. Nixon’s 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.
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Can Vice President Kamala Harris end the filibuster by declaring it unconstitutional? (Original Post) FalloutShelter Mar 2021 OP
At first, I thought this was nuts. lagomorph777 Mar 2021 #1
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