FilibusterThe topic I chose to write about is the filibuster. The filibuster is a very important and unique issue in American government. The filibuster is used in the Senate to slow or derail bills. It is also being used to block judicial nominees, recently threatened to be used against Justice Alito. It is a very strong tool especially for the minority party. The minority may use it to make a point or to try to get what they want. The filibuster may be very upsetting to the majority party, but it will be very important to them when one day they become the minority party. The filibuster has come a long way in its origins. Originally the filibuster was someone who went around wreaking havoc on people, most commonly pirates. In the mid-nineteenth century many of these groups of people organized themselves in the United States and went to Central America and the West Indies and started revolutions. These people became known in English as filibusters, derived from the Spanish filibustero. In the early 19th century, a Virginia senator named John Randolph took to making long speeches on the Senate floor. The senators soon tired of these long and irrelevant speeches and voted to give the president all the right to deal with such problems. This is where it gets interesting because in 1872 Schuyler Colfax, the Vice President, ruled that "it is the practice of the Senate that the President may not restrain a Senator in remarks which the Senate considers pertinent to the pending question." This tactic soon became widely used in the Senate and was compared to military adventurers or obstructionists. People started saying that a senator was stonewalling. (An Illustrated Approach) Filibusters can be a very strong tool for the Senate minority. A senator or his or her minority party can block full Senate consideration of a bill or nomination through prolonged debate of the proposal. This is especially important for the Senate if there are only 50-59 senators in favor of passing a bill. This is due to the dress code rule. A filibuster can be ended in the Senate with a cloture vote in which 60 out of 100 senators vote to end the filibuster and bring the bill or nomination to a final vote. It's almost a kind of check and balance system within the Senate.