Political Scientists in Support of the Freedom to Vote Act //New America Foundation

A group of political scientists and scholars of democracy has called for suspension of the filibuster in order to pass the freedom to vote act.  Our democracy is in jeopardy, they write, in a statement published by the New America Foundation.  One of the dilemmas is that in Rucho v. Common Cause the United States Supreme Court has decided not to intervene in political gerrymandering cases.  Leaving it to the states effectively entrenches the legislative majorities drawn after the decennial census.  Thus in North Carolina a Republican electoral majority can is likely indestructible.

- GWC

Statement in Support of the Freedom to Vote Act

If Congress fails to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, American democracy will be at critical risk. Not only could this failure undermine the minimum condition for electoral democracy—free and fair elections—but it would in turn likely result in an extended period of minority rule, which a majority of the country would reject as undemocratic and illegitimate. This would have grave consequences not only for our democracy, but for political order, economic prosperity, and the national security of the United States as well.

Defenders of democracy in America still have a slim window of opportunity to act. But time is ticking away, and midnight is approaching. To lose our democracy but preserve the filibuster in its current form—in which a minority can block popular legislation without even having to hold the floor—would be a short-sighted mistake of historic proportions. The remarkable history of the American system of government is replete with critical, generational moments in which liberal democracy itself was under threat, and Congress asserted its central leadership role in proving that a system of free and fair elections can work.

We urge the Senate to suspend the filibuster rule for this measure and pass the Freedom to Vote Act. This would uphold the Senate's noblest tradition of preserving and strengthening American democracy.