What is a filibuster and why isn’t Cory Booker’s marathon speech considered one?

Answering the call of his consituents in New Jersey and other concerned citizens in the rest of the country, Senator Cory Booker took the responsiblity into his own hands to warn the American people about what the Trump Administration is doing in regards to illegal deportations, incompetent cabinet members and disastrous tariffs for the economy.

The Senator from New Jersey started speaking at 7 p.m. approx. on Monday evening and is still going as this is being written 12 hours later. His intention is to cause “good trouble” and bring the distastrous and illegal measures of the Trump Administration to the attention of the American people, but his speech is not considered a filibuster because it isn’t blocking any legislation, but it will disrupt the Senate if he goes on past noon on Tuesday.

What is the filibuster?

The filibuster stems from a 19th century Senate rule which essentially allowed members to prevent a bill being passed by simply continuing to talk until the chamber’s time had elapsed. Debate is limited in the Senate so the filibuster allows members to derail the passage of bills, unless there is a 60-vote supermajority willing to stop them doing so.

The record for the longest filibuster speech remains Democratic Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 1957 epic, when he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes to prevent passage of a major civil rights bill. More recently Republican Sen. Ted Cruz spoke for more than 21 hours in 2013 in opposition to President Obama’s Affordable Care Act proposals, more commonly known as Obamacare.

However under recent rules, senators do not even need to talk for the entire period of time to enact a filibuster. Simply registering their intention to do so is enough to block the bill and the Senate must move on.

Who is Cory Booker?

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“Many people are saying ‘You’ve got to run again’.”

The Senator from New Jersey was brought up in the state he now represents, but received his undergraduate and master’s degree from Standford University, where he played football and wrote for the student newspater. he is a Rhodes Scholar and graduated from Yale Law School in 1997.

Senator Booker served as mayor of Newark from 2016 to 2013, when he became Senator of New Jersey after winning a special election. He was re-elected in 2014 to a full six-year term. Booker defeated the Republican nominee for New Jersey Senate Rik Mehta 57%-41% in 2020.