Following on my last piece, Rand Paul is going to filibuster the nomination of David Barron to serve on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. But he isn’t going to do it by talking. He’s going to do it by objecting to a motion to proceed to a vote on Barron’s confirmation. Then they will have a cloture vote, and if 50 or more senators vote to proceed to a vote, then the filibuster will be broken and they will have a vote to confirm Mr. Barron.
What Senator Rand Paul is going to do is to use open floor time to talk about the legality of using a drone to kill Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. In the absence of a consent agreement between Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a senator may talk for as long as he likes, and no force in nature other than the need to use the bathroom can make a senator shut up. This could conceivably cause a delay in pre-planned Senate proceedings but it won’t hold up Mr. Barron’s confirmation. It is not a filibuster.
