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A filibuster is a tactic used in the United States Senate to delay or block a vote on a measure by preventing debate on it from ending. [1]: 2 The Senate's rules place few restrictions on debate; in general, if no other senator is speaking, a senator who seeks recognition is entitled to speak for as long as they wish.
The term "filibuster" ultimately derives from the Dutch vrijbuiter ("freebooter", a pillaging and plundering adventurer), but the precise history of the word's borrowing into English is obscure. [2] The Oxford English Dictionary finds its only known use in early modern English in a 1587 book describing "flibutors" who robbed supply convoys. [2]
Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina famously staged one for 24 hours and 18 minutes — still the record — against civil rights legislation in 1957.
Senate Democrats used the filibuster to prevent the confirmation of ten conservative court candidates nominated by Republican President George W. Bush. [1]As a result of these ten filibusters, Senate Republican leaders began to threaten to change the existing Senate rules by using the "nuclear option" (sometimes referred to as the "constitutional option").
The Patriot War was an attempt in 1812 to foment a rebellion in Spanish East Florida with the intent of annexing the province to the United States. The invasion and the occupation of parts of East Florida had elements of filibustering but was also supported by units of the United States Army, Navy, and Marines and by militia from Georgia and Tennessee.
Biven claimed in an article for the “Alta California” that Crabb's party was not a filibustering expedition but a peaceful colonization effort. According to Biven, Crabb came to Sonora at the invitation of Don Ignacio Pesqueira, who later denounced them as filibusters and waged war against them to eliminate any witnesses.
In an attempt to prevent its passage, Long held a lone filibuster, speaking for 15 hours and 30 minutes, the second longest filibuster at the time. [ 20 ] [ 19 ] During the filibuster, he read and analyzed each section of the Constitution, which he claimed the New Deal was turning into "ancient and forgotten lore".
The filibuster—an extended speech designed to stall legislation—began at 8:54 p.m. [a] and lasted until 9:12 p.m. the following day, a duration of 24 hours and 18 minutes. This made the filibuster the longest single-person filibuster in United States Senate history, a record that still stands as of 2025.