We hear that Senate Republicans may exercise the nuclear option and eliminate the right to filibuster Supreme Court nominations if the Democrats produce 41 votes to block confirmation of 10th Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch. We have a better solution: exercise the thermonuclear option and eliminate filibustering entirely.
The filibuster should be entirely eliminated for three reasons. First, it is antidemocratic because it allows the Senate minority to thwart the will of the Senate majority. It is said that the filibuster protects individual liberties by preventing rash or impulsive actions by legislative majorities. But that is the role of separation of powers, and the Constitution already provides plenty of it: a bicameral Congress, a separately elected president, and an independent judiciary, but not a filibuster. And anyone who grew up before the civil rights legislation of the mid-1960s will laugh grimly at any claim that the filibuster protects individual liberties.
