The Once and Future History of the Filibuster

Sen. Strom Thurmond, setting the record for longest single-person filibuster U.S. Senate history at 24 hours and 18 minutes. The bill whose passage he was trying to prevent was the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

TL;DR Version — The filibuster is an old Senate tool that can be used by the minority party to stop legislation from passing. The Democrats currently control both chambers of Congress and want to pass a robust policy agenda, which will probably face obstruction from the Republicans. In order to have a better chance of passing this agenda, a number of Democrats have voiced support for changing the Senate rules…