Good Question: What Is The Senate's 'Nuclear Option'?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- On Wednesday, President Trump told Senate leaders to quote "go nuclear" if it'll help confirm his Supreme Court pick. He was referring to what's called the nuclear option, a change in the Senate rules. So, what exactly is the nuclear option? Good Question.
To understand the nuclear option, you first have to understand filibusters. They've been around since the 1800s and give the minority party in the Senate some power.
"A filibuster is talking and talking and talking and continuing to talk until someone decides to change the topic," says Fred Morrison, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Minnesota.
Right now, 51 senators – a majority – are needed to confirm a Supreme Court pick. (There are 52 Republicans in the U.S. Senate.) As the rules currently stand, Democrats would be able to block that confirmation with a filibuster because it takes 60 votes for the Senate to bring the filibuster to an end. Over the past few decades, just the threat of a filibuster has stopped the Senate from taking up legislation.
What the nuclear, also referred to as constitutional, option would do is end the filibuster for Supreme Court confirmations. Experts use the word nuclear because instituting it would likely bring work in the Senate grinding to a halt.
"For senators, it is really extreme because most of them have been able to be protected by it when they're in the minority," says Morrison.
In 2013, then-Senate majority Leader Harry Reid persuaded Democrats to get rid of filibusters for Cabinet and lower-level court confirmations.
"I think that's why it's called nuclear because everyone ends up a loser, maybe not this year, but two or four years from now," says Morrison. "It's one of those things that's a downward spiral."