Changing the Rules of the U.S. Senate by Majority Vote in Midstream

Jon Walker:

Byrd Did Not Just Write the Book on Senate, He Rewrote Its Rules: Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH) and James Abourezk (D-SD) performed a post-cloture filibuster... by offering a slew of amendments... forcing a roll-call vote for each.... Byrd raised a point of order to require the chair [Mondale:] to rule all post-cloture dilatory amendments out of order. When Metzenbaum and Abourezk lost their appeal of the chair’s ruling, Byrd used the new precedent to rule all of their amendments...