Faced with such a filibuster, Republicans will be sorely tempted to extend the Democrats’ precedent to include Supreme Court nominations. They would be likely to defend the power-grab by pointing to what the opposition did in 2013.
Republicans have bitterly criticized Democrats’ use of the nuclear option. So they should not use it themselves now. And indeed, they don’t need to. They can beat back a filibuster by traditional methods. They can use public opinion to force votes. They can require debate around the clock, adding drama. They can use President Trump’s bully pulpit to focus attention on endangered Democratic senators who must run for re-election in 2018 in states that Mr. Trump won. This will make it difficult for Democrats to sustain the 41 votes necessary to keep a filibuster alive.
It’s important to keep the filibuster. With it, presidents must try to win the minority’s support for nominees. This has helped to keep nominations in the judicial mainstream.
True, because of the hyper-partisanship in the Senate, the filibuster has been abused in recent years. The solution to excessive partisanship, however, is not to rewrite Senate rules. Eliminating the filibuster, in fact, would worsen the polarization.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member