Examples abound of how the Senate's "filibuster" rule has led to legislative paralysis, including on climate change and other environmental challenges. For example, earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the final word on long-running litigation over the scope of the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases from power plants under the Clean Air Act. In West Virginia v. EPA, the Court embraced a narrow view of the statute, severely constraining the Biden administration's ability to tackle climate change via regulation of the energy sector. In another era, West Virginia might have prompted swift action by a Congress controlled by the President's party to update the Act to give the EPA every available tool to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Or Congress might have enacted a new regulatory regime, like the failed 2010 cap and trade bill that had the support of the public, the majority of Senators and House members, and President Obama. The failure to update the Clean Air Act and other environmental statutes, or to otherwise address climate change and a host of other problems can be traced in large part to the filibuster.

Senators have used the filibuster (or the threat of one) with unprecedented frequency over the last two decades to block a wide range of important and popular legislation and to frustrate the legislative priorities of winning majorities including on gun control, immigration, voting rights and climate change. With the exception of budget bills and judicial and executive appointments, Senate activity has slowed to a crawl, particularly since 2009, with a minority of Senators wielding de facto veto power through the filibuster. Contrary to popular myth (and what proponents of the filibuster want you to think), this state of affairs has no basis in the U.S. Constitution or history. It's time to take a fresh look at how the filibuster is hobbling efforts to address climate change and other important national emergencies and the troubling constitutional issues at stake.