What is the “filibuster”, this parliamentary rule that Biden wants to circumvent to protect the right to abortion?

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US President Joe Biden at the NATO summit in Madrid, June 30, 2022. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP

FOCUS – The President of the United States has said he is ready to override this historic parliamentary rule to enshrine the right to abortion in law, following the reversal of the Roe vs. Wade case law by the Supreme Court.

Since the reversal of Roe v. Wade who enshrined the right to abortion, Joe Biden hammers it: “this judgment must be codified in a law“. But the American president finds himself paralyzed by the absence of a clear majority in Parliament. At a press conference on Thursday, the Democrat therefore said he was ready to override the “filibuster”, a binding legislative procedure.

What is the filibuster?

The “filibuster” is a procedure specific to the Senate which allows one or more senators to block the examination of a text which they consider too divisive or important to be voted on only by a simple majority, i.e. i.e. with 51 votes. When the “filibuster” is triggered, the text needs a qualified majority to be adopted, in this case at least 60 votes.

The process has evolved a lot throughout history. For a long time, the “filibuster” consisted for the opposition to speak as long as possible in order to postpone the debates and to discourage the senators from voting on a text. This…

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