Common Cause Asks Full D.C. Circuit Court to Reconsider Filibuster Challenge

Common Cause is asking a federal appeals court in Washington to take a second look at the organization’s challenge to the U.S. Senate’s filibuster rule and its 60-vote requirement for action.

 

In a petition filed Tuesday, the non-partisan government reform group urged the full 11-member U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review a three-judge panel’s decision in April dismissing Common Cause v. Biden. The panel said the litigation was flawed because it named officers of the United States Senate rather than the Senate itself as defendants.

 

Lead attorney and Common Cause National Governing Board Member Emmet Bondurant argued that the panel’s ruling is inconsistent with a long line of Supreme Court cases. The high court has held for over a century that the rule-making power of Congress is not absolute and is subject to the limitations imposed by other provisions of the Constitution, Bondurant asserted.

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Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to restoring the core values of American democracy, reinventing an open, honest, and accountable government that works for the public interest, and empowering ordinary people to make their voices heard.