Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A parliamentary procedure by which debate is ended and an immediate vote is taken on the matter under discussion.
- transitive verb To apply cloture to (a parliamentary debate).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun law In
legislative assemblies that permit unlimiteddebate (filibuster ); amotion ,procedure orrule , by which debate is ended so that a vote may be taken on the matter. For example, in the United States Senate, a three-fifths majority vote of the body is required toinvoke cloture and terminate debate.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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So any vote against cloture is now an “attempted” filibuster that justifies actual filibusters of all subsequent nominees or, worse, anonymous holds, regardless of whether the “attempt” had a plausible chance of success or was merely a symbolic protest with no likelihood of actually interfering with a nomination?
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The nominal function of cloture is to have full, informed debate before casting a simple majority vote.
The Volokh Conspiracy » “It May Be Clever, but It Is Not Constitutional” 2010
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So, you see, what the Dems want, by filing cloture, is to stop debating whether to debate the bill, and start debating the bill itself.
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I may have to modify my opinion that abuse of cloture is constitutional during consideration of legislation.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Does Marshall Field v. Clark Preclude a Challenge to “Deem and Pass”? 2010
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If so … I think that Democrats should be careful to frame this in the following way: a vote for cloture is a vote that recognizes the right of the American people to hear a frank debate about health care reform.
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What happens if a motion for cloture is “vitiated” or there is “no action”?
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The reason the republicans are fighting against cloture is because it's the only chance to stop the Dems from enacting their hyper-partisan agenda.
Democrats slam GOP as party of 'fear' in health care debate 2009
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Why not give the VP the right to provide the 60th vote when cloture is at hand or limit debate to 720 hours (1 Month)?
Think Progress » White House Signals That It Will Fight Back Against GOP Abuse Of Filibuster 2010
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Seeing us achieve cloture is a new, exciting thing!
On a Sunday, the Senate Votes Yes on a Lands Bill - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com 2009
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I believe Nate had a post a while back pointing out that when there are 98 Senators, the threshold for cloture is only 59.
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