Precloture filibuster in the U.S. Senate (1789-1917)

Abstract

The filibuster, as is known the parliamentarian obstruction in the United States, has played, and still plays, a key role in the US political system, being an identifying element of the Senate and explains the relevancy of this Chamber. The filibuster is identified with the tactics of unlimited speeches, but historically it has also employed other tactics as the multiple quorum calls motions and the so-called vanishing quorums. This article analyses the evolution of the filibuster in the historic Senate until the approval of the first filibuster antidote, the cloture rule in 1917. Three periods can be distinguished: the primitive Senate, until 1820, where there is not a real filibuster; the classic Senate, until 1880, characterized by the tensions which led to the civil war and its aftermath; and the golden age of the filibuster precloture until the passing of the Rule 22, which established the possibility of ending the debate with the approval of 2/3 of the voting senators. Nevertheless, the cloture didn´t imply the filibuster deletion, as the cloture was rarely invoked until de sixties. The Senate particularism and the role played by senators into the American checks and balances would explain its survival until our days, in contrast with what has happened in other parliaments.

Summary:

I.- INTRODUCTION: THE CONCEPTUAL AND LEGAL GROUNDS OF THE CLASSIC FILIBUSTER. II.- THE PRECLOTURE FILIBUSTER: PERIODS, PROCEDIMENTAL FRAMEWORK AND PRINCIPAL CASES. 1. The primitive Senate 1789-1820. 2. The filibuster between 1820 and 1880. 3. The cenit of the precloture filibuster: 1880-1917. III. CLOTURE ADOPTION. CONCLUSIONS