We once backed using the filibuster. Now it must be reformed.

John Podesta and Wade Henderson explain why the exceptions to the filibuster must be expanded—at a minimum—to allow for the protection of voting rights.

Try explaining to a Black grandmother raised under Jim Crow why it takes only 50 votes in the Senate to stack the Supreme Court with justices who are undermining her voting rights, but 60 votes to pass a bill protecting them. Or better yet, ask her to tell you about her life 60 years ago, and how the law was used to keep her from accessing education, jobs and the ballot box.

Americans are watching in real time as states pass bills to erect barriers to the ballot box for communities of color and to make it easier for a state legislature to overturn the results of an election. Some measures have sought to criminalize giving water to people waiting in long voting lines, disproportionately found in Black communities; others have attempted to bar early voting on Sundays, a transparent effort to stop Black voters from going to the polls after church.

The above excerpt was originally published in The Washington Post. Click here to view the full article.

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