The Volokh Conspiracy
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A Reminder Of What Will Happen When The Filibuster Is Gone
Harris says the quiet part out loud.
Today Vice President Harris announced that she would support eliminating the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade:
"I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe [v. Wade], and get us back to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom."
Senate Majority Leader Schumer likewise said eliminating the filibuster is "something our caucus will discuss in the next session of Congress." Translation: Democrats will nuke the filibuster if they win the White House and have majorities in both houses.
I agree with the Wall Street Journal that once the filibuster is eliminated for abortion, it will be eliminated for all other legislation.
She's couching this procedural coup as related only to imposing a national abortion law on all 50 states. But anyone paying attention knows that's a ruse. Once the 60-vote filibuster rule ends for one piece of non-budget legislation, it will end for everything.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, recently said he wants to break the filibuster for a national abortion law and pass a bill that would impose California-style voting rules on all 50 states. Good-bye voter identification, and hello nationwide ballot harvesting.
It won't stop there. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse says he wants to break the filibuster to restructure the Supreme Court. Sen. Bernie Sanders has recently given up on his former institutional objections and now favors 51 votes to pass his proposals.
Every interest group in the Democratic coalition will demand that its priorities pass with 51 votes too. Think statehood for the District of Columbia. And think Big Labor's PRO Act that would ban right-to-work laws nationwide, among other ideas that would normally require bipartisan majorities to pass the Senate.
This wishlist is not fanciful. Jeff Toobin offered a similar roadmap in 2020.
Once D.C. has statehood, it will become far more difficult for Republicans to obtain a majority in the Senate, and nearly impossible to confirm Republican-nominated judges. And once the lower courts and Supreme Court are packed, there will be no judicial check on whatever a simple majority of Democrats can muster. Within a span of a two years, our country would become nearly unrecognizable. If you think this sort of rapid change is impossible, look at what just happened in Mexico.
This blog is hosted by a non-profit, so I will resist making any sort of political endorsement. Instead, I would urge people who are generally right-of-center to think very carefully about which candidate actually poses the bigger threat to that which they care the most about. I know of several never-Trumpers who today became reluctant-Trumpers. You are not alone.
