Using the filibuster to delay or block legislative action has
a long history. The term filibuster—from a Dutch word
meaning "pirate"—became popular in the 1850s,
when it was applied to efforts to hold the Senate floor in
order to prevent a vote on a bill.
In the early years of Congress, representatives as well as
senators could filibuster. As the House of Representatives
grew in number, however, revisions to the House rules
limited debate. In the smaller Senate, unlimited debate
continued on the grounds that any senator should have the
right to speak as long as necessary on any issue.
In 1841, when the Democratic minority hoped to block a bank
bill promoted by Kentucky senator
Henry Clay
, he threatened to change Senate rules to allow the majority
to close debate. Missouri senator
Thomas Hart Benton
rebuked Clay for trying to stifle the Senate's right to
unlimited debate.
Three quarters of a century later, in 1917, senators adopted
a rule (Rule 22), at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson,
that allowed the Senate to end a debate with a two-thirds
majority vote, a device known as "
cloture
." The new Senate rule was first put to the test in
1919, when the Senate invoked cloture to end a filibuster
against the Treaty of Versailles. Even with the new cloture
rule, filibusters remained an effective means to block
legislation, since a two-thirds vote is difficult to obtain.
Over the next five decades, the Senate occasionally tried to
invoke cloture, but usually failed to gain the necessary
two-thirds vote. Filibusters were particularly useful to
southern senators who sought to block civil rights
legislation, including anti-lynching legislation, until
cloture was invoked after a 60-day filibuster against the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1975 the Senate reduced the
number of votes required for cloture from two-thirds to
three-fifths, or 60 of the current 100 senators.
Many Americans are familiar with the filibuster conducted by
Jimmy Stewart, playing Senator Jefferson Smith in Frank
Capra's film
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
, but there have been some famous filibusters in the
real-life Senate as well. During the 1930s, Senator
Huey P. Long
effectively used the filibuster against bills that he
thought favored the rich over the poor. The Louisiana
senator frustrated his colleagues while entertaining
spectators with his recitations of Shakespeare and his
reading of recipes for "pot-likkers." Long once held
the Senate floor for 15 hours. The record for the longest
individual speech goes to South Carolina's
J. Strom Thurmond
who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes
against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
