Michael Connelly
There has
been a lot of discussion about Republicans in the U.S. Senate using what is
called the “nuclear option” to get an outstanding nominee Neil Gorsuch
appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. This was needed to overcome the “cloture”
rule that requires 60 Senators to vote to allow a Supreme Court nominee to even
be voted on by the Senate. Unfortunately, the same rule also applies to most of
all regular legislation brought before the Senate including those laws passed
by the House of Representatives.
The U.S. Constitution provides for
bills to be adopted, and nominees to be onfirmed by a majority vote in the
Senate with the Vice President casting the deciding vote if the Senate is
evenly split. The Senate is also allowed to set its own rules but there is
nothing indicating that they can override the majority vote requirement, yet
that is what the Senate did that in 1917 when it adopted a two thirds vote
cloture rule. That proved to be a disaster since the overwhelming majority was
virtually never reached, despite the fact that in those days members of the
Senate were patriots and would vote for legislation that was good for the
country not just their political party.
Yet, there was still gridlock in
many cases so in 1975 the Senate changed its rules to set the current 60 vote
threshold. Both parties used it to their advantage when the other party
controlled the Senate. Then the Democrats under Harry Reid decided in 2013 to
get rid of the cloture rule when it came to Obama nominated federal judges at
the district and appellate level that were being blocked by Republicans because
of many of the nominees far left leanings. The Senate democrats were all on
board with this change and Chuck Schumer was particularly enthusiastic.
However, now that the Republicans
have taken a page from the Democrat playbook and invoked the nuclear option to
get Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the Supreme Court, Schumer and many other
Democrats are absolutely hysterical. It seems that the cloture rule should only
apply to Republicans, not to the Democrat elitists who consider themselves
above the law. They are adamantly opposed to Judge Gorsuch because he believes
in the Constitution that Democrats generally view as an archaic document that
is getting in the way of their game plan to destroy our constitutional republic
and create a “socialist paradise” in its place.
However, while I fully support use
of the nuclear option to confirm Judge Gorsuch; as a constitutional lawyer I
have a problem with the entire cloture rule. I believe it is unconstitutional
and should be entirely abolished by the Senate. The fact is that the cloture
rule dilutes my vote and those of all other Americans who vote for Senators.
Instead of having my Senators effectively represent me by voting to pass or
defeat legislation by a majority vote, as provided in the Constitution, their
votes are often meaningless.
For example, I have been working for
the last four years with veterans who are being arbitrarily denied their Second
Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Eighteen months ago I also predicted
that the same methods were going to be employed to disarm Social Security recipients,
That has also come true and the House of Representatives has passed legislation
to stop these abuses. However, initial indications are that Senate democrats
will use the cloture rule to stop both of these bills from coming to the full
Senate for a vote.
That will happen because under the
cloture rule the two votes of the Senators in Texas that will represent me will
be meaningless while the votes of the two Democrat senators from Massachusetts
will count along with all other votes by Senate democrats. America’s heroes and
our senior citizens will continue to be denied their constitutional rights. For
this and other compelling reasons, it is imperative that we call on Republican
senators to permanently abolish the 60 vote cloture rule and give us back our
Constitution and the ability of Congress to act with majority votes of 51.
Michael
Connelly
