Stonewalling Democracy:Demanding the Elimination of the Senate Filibuster in the Pursuit of Progress
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-3-2022
Graduation Year
2023
Abstract
At the close of his first year in office, President Biden and his administration have claimed to have “delivered results for the American people” and have further “made history growing our economy, addressing the climate crisis, and building a judiciary and government that represents America.” While the President’s record certainly indicates a major shift in political priorities from the previous administration, critics continue to demand that President Biden take more assertive action to execute the purported legislative goals of his administration, particularly the Build Back Better Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Amid widespread misinformation stoking fears of voter fraud and Republican-led state legislatures passing restrictive voting rights laws, President Biden’s inaugural address pledge to “defend our democracy” in the wake of a violent insurrection on the U.S. Capitol feels particularly empty to many one year into his presidency. Facing hyper-partisan opposition to his legislative agenda—as well as prominent Senate defectors within the Democratic Caucus—President Biden and Congressional Democrats are confronted with a specific hurdle which time-and-again has blocked any significant progress: the Senate filibuster.
This post was originally published on the Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice website on February 3, 2022. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above.
Recommended Citation
Villano, Davis, "Stonewalling Democracy:Demanding the Elimination of the Senate Filibuster in the Pursuit of Progress" (2022). ERSJ Blog. 17.
https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/ersj-blog/17
