Filibuster

Employee Free Choice Act Abandoned Despite Democratic Supermajority, Corporate Lobbying Victory

| Importance: 8/10

Senator Arlen Specter announces on March 24, 2009, that he will not support the Employee Free Choice Act, effectively killing labor’s top legislative priority despite Democratic control of the presidency and both houses of Congress. EFCA would have allowed workers to form unions through …

Barack Obama U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Roundtable AFL-CIO U.S. Senate +1 more labor labor-law-reform corporate-lobbying card-check filibuster +1 more
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Labor Law Reform Act Killed by Filibuster After Business Roundtable Lobbying Blitz

| Importance: 9/10

After six cloture attempts fail to break a Senate filibuster, the Labor Law Reform Act of 1978 dies on June 22, marking the most significant corporate lobbying victory since Taft-Hartley and demonstrating that even with Democratic supermajorities and a Democratic president, business interests can …

Business Roundtable U.S. Chamber of Commerce National Association of Manufacturers AFL-CIO U.S. Senate +1 more labor labor-law filibuster corporate-lobbying business-roundtable +1 more
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Senate Invokes Cloture to End 72-Day Filibuster Against Civil Rights Act for First Time in History

| Importance: 10/10

On June 10, 1964, the United States Senate invoked cloture by a vote of 71 to 29, ending a 72-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act—marking the first time in Senate history that cloture had been successfully invoked to break a filibuster on civil rights legislation. The Southern Bloc of 18 …

Southern Democratic Caucus Richard Russell Robert Byrd Hubert Humphrey Everett Dirksen civil-rights institutional-racism democratic-erosion legislative-obstruction filibuster
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Civil Rights Act of 1957: First Federal Voting Rights Law Since Reconstruction Passes Despite Southern Filibuster

| Importance: 7/10

President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, establishing the Civil Rights Division within the Department of Justice and authorizing federal prosecutors to seek injunctions against interference with voting rights. However, …

Dwight D. Eisenhower Lyndon B. Johnson Strom Thurmond Richard Russell Attorney General Herbert Brownell +1 more voting-rights civil-rights federal-legislation filibuster southern-strategy +1 more
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