Exercise 2: How the Nuclear Option Changed Supreme Court Confirmations — Possible Solution ================================================================================================================== This exercise is really asking for the difference between what Chapter 3's general filibuster rule says and what actually applies to Supreme Court nominees today, so the answer needs both changes explained in the right order. WHAT CHAPTER 3'S RULE WOULD OTHERWISE REQUIRE Chapter 3 established that ending a Senate filibuster on most business requires invoking cloture under Rule XXII, which currently needs three-fifths of the Senate - 60 of 100 votes - not a simple majority. Under that general rule, a Supreme Court nominee facing a filibuster would need 60 votes just to force a final confirmation vote, even if a simple 51-vote majority already supported confirming them. STEP ONE: 2013, EXCLUDING THE SUPREME COURT On 21 November 2013, Senate Democrats under Harry Reid lowered the cloture threshold from 60 votes to a simple majority - but only for executive-branch nominees and lower federal judicial nominees. Supreme Court nominations were explicitly excluded and continued to require the full 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster. STEP TWO: 2017, REMOVING THE SUPREME COURT EXCEPTION That carve-out lasted until 6 April 2017, when Senate Republicans under Mitch McConnell extended the same simple-majority rule to Supreme Court nominations specifically. The immediate trigger was a Democratic filibuster of nominee Neil Gorsuch - Republicans responded by removing the Supreme Court exception the 2013 change had left in place. THE PRACTICAL RESULT TODAY Since April 2017, a Supreme Court nominee no longer needs to clear Chapter 3's own 60-vote cloture bar at all. A simple majority - 51 votes, or 50 plus a Vice Presidential tie-breaking vote per Chapter 3's own material on that role - is now sufficient to end debate and confirm a nominee. The 60-vote threshold that killed Senator Chávez's 1946 bill in Chapter 3 simply does not apply to this specific kind of Senate vote anymore. ANSWER: Under Chapter 3's general filibuster rule, a Supreme Court nominee would need 60 of 100 votes to overcome a filibuster and reach a confirmation vote. Two real Senate rule changes eliminated that requirement for this specific case: the 2013 nuclear option (Harry Reid, Democrats) lowered the threshold to a simple majority for executive and lower-court nominees while explicitly excluding the Supreme Court, and the 2017 nuclear option (Mitch McConnell, Republicans, triggered by the filibuster of Neil Gorsuch) removed that exception - so a Supreme Court confirmation has required only a simple majority, not 60 votes, since April 2017. WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER ------------------------------ It states the general rule from Chapter 3 first as the baseline, then walks through both real historical changes in the correct chronological order, showing exactly how and when the Supreme Court stopped being covered by the 60-vote threshold.