Some Observations on Calls for Senate Reform: Part One of a Two-Part Series

VIKRAM DAVID AMAR

In this first of a series of columns, Illinois Law dean and professor Vikram David Amar offers four observations about recent calls for reform of the filibuster device in the U.S. Senate. Dean Amar suggests looking at state experiences with supermajority rules, as well as the Senate’s own recent past, and he considers why senators might be reluctant to eliminate the filibuster. He concludes with a comment on President Joe Biden’s suggestion that the Senate return to the “talking filibuster” and praises a suggestion by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) that the cloture requirement (currently at 60 votes) could be lowered gradually, the longer a measure under consideration is debated.

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United States v. Kieffer

Docket: 19-30225

Opinion Date: March 19, 2021

Judge: Catharina Haynes

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed defendants' convictions for offenses related to their involvement in two armored truck robberies. The court concluded that a third co-defendant's testimony alone was sufficient to support defendants' convictions; sufficient evidence supported Defendant Armstead's conviction for making a false material statement and for being a felon-in-possession of a firearm; the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendants' motions for a new trial where defendants failed to identify any inappropriate questions asked to the jury and the court saw no indication that any juror abandoned his or her role as a neutral fact-finder; and Defendant Jerome's conviction under 18 U.S.C. 924(c) was predicated solely on armed bank robbery and thus United States v. Reece, 938 F.3d 630 (5th Cir. 2019), was inapplicable in this case.