Sep 20, 2024
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the chamber after criticizing Democrats for wanting to change the filibuster rule, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Filibuster: Then and Now

The first filibuster was used in the Senate’s first meeting on September 22, 1789. On that day, Pennsylvania Senator William Maclay wrote that the “design of the Virginians . . . was to talk away the time, so that we could not get the bill passed.” In the 1800s, the... Read More »