The Atlantic

Good Riddance to the Filibuster

If the Democrats use the filibuster to protest Neil Gorsuch’s nomination, it might be the only constructive purpose the practice has ever served.
Source: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Where were you on June 10, 1964?

What were you doing, what were you thinking, what were you talking about?

You may not have been born; you may have been very young. I remember June 10, 1964, clearly. I was 14, a Southern white boy teetering on the edge of adolescence, thinking ahead to high school and girls—and dimly realizing that the world as I knew it was about to change forever.

On June 10, 1964, 71 U.S. Senators voted to end debate on the proposed Civil Rights Act of 1964. The CRA is the law that ended Southern apartheid, revolutionizing life in my segregated backwater region. It was also the first civil-rights measure in history to pass after a Senate vote on “cloture”—a two-thirds vote to end debate—ended a Southern filibuster.

By the end of this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

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