The Constitution was written so that the Senate would protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. That's why Rhode Island was given the same number of Senators as New York and why Montana has the same number of Senators as California and Georgia.

Senate rules, from the beginning, allowed for unlimited debate so the Senate would become a more deliberative body and to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority.

For over 200 years, the rule of unlimited debate has held sway. But now, the Republican majority see in their grasp the turning of the Senate into just a smaller version of the House of Representatives, where debate is limited by the clock.  The Right has told the American people that the Constitution provides for an up or down vote on all nominees. It does not!

The Senate, the more deliberative body, has the right to set its own rules and has done so. Throughout history, nominees have been held up for one reason or another. Either by never getting to a hearing, or by not being voted out of committee, or by a Senator putting a hold on the nomination, or by filibuster.

The Senate is to advise and consent to nominations - not rubber-stamp them. In the original version of the Constitution, it was the Legislative Branch that had the authority to appoint judges. Only after additional deliberation did the Constitutional Convention make it the dual responsibility of the Executive and the Legislative branches.

Some Senators have said the President should be able to select his own judges, as well as other nominees. That is not what the framers of the Constitution wrote.   They said the Senate has the right, nay the duty, to advise and consent.  Senators who vote for the nuclear option are abrogating their responsibilities to advise and consent. Let us urge them to reconsider.