Judicial filibusters

A few points made here:

Technically, a judge has been filibustered in the past. In 1968, Abe Fortas was blocked by a filibuster staged by 24 Republicans and 19 Democrats.

Fortas never had majority support in the Senate, and would not have been elevated to Chief Justice.

The filibuster was undertaken after Fortas refused to appear before the Judiciary Committee following reports of financial wrongdoing. He eventually was forced to resign from the Supreme Court altogether.

At the time, it would have taken 59 votes to end the filibuster. Why not 60? At the time, the rules required a two-thirds vote of senators present to invoke cloture.

In 1975, the rule was changed so that three-fifths of the membership – not just those in attendance – would be required to invoke cloture.

The rule change originally proposed by Walter Mondale would have called for three fifths of senators in attendance to invoke cloture. The change from senators in attendance to total membership as the baseline was proposed by Robert Byrd.