Washington (CNN)As Democrats push to pass voting rights legislation through Congress, there's been talk of using a process known as the "nuclear option."
It's an overheated phrase that boils down to changing Senate rules to pass legislation with a simple majority.
Senators need 60 votes to do just about anything in the Senate but change the rules. That takes only 51 votes.
Nuclear? That sounds harsh for something as simple as a rule change.
Senators view themselves as being part of the "world's greatest deliberative body." It's a debatable point, but in order to protect the minority party and make sure nobody does anything without a full debate, Senate rules require that 60 of 100 senators agree to votes to move toward passing legislation. In the fancy language they speak on Capitol Hill, limiting debate and moving toward a vote is called "invoking cloture."
Actually passing the legislation takes only 51 votes, but because of the procedural rules, it takes 60 to invoke cloture and get to the actual vote. By requiring only 51 votes to limit debate, the entire character of the chamber would change. Instead of being forced to get buy-in from the minority party -- Republicans right now -- the majority party would be able to pass anything for which it could get a simple majority.
The idea is that it would figuratively "blow up" the Senate. For now, a simple majority Senate excites many Democrats who want to pass more legislation. It frightens Republicans whose strategy is to grind things on Capitol Hill to a halt.
The symbolism of "going nuclear" portends a sort of mutually assured destruction in the future, to borrow another Cold War term. Democrats won't always control the Senate. And when Republicans are in charge, you can bet they'll return the favor.
Has this kind of rule change ever happened before?
Yes. We're already living in a post-nuclear option world when it comes to presidential nominees.
Most judicial and executive branch nominees used to require 60 votes to invoke cloture. Democrats changed the rules to require only a simple majority to get votes on most nominees during the Obama administration. Republicans changed the rules for Supreme Court nominees during the Trump administration.
Is all of this constitutional?
Sure is. The Constitution doesn't say anything about Senate rules. It puts that power in the hands of senators.
"Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings," according to Article 1, Section 5.
Senators are tasked with signing off on nominees in Article 2, Section 2. But it doesn't say how, exactly, which has led to a centuries-long debate on the matter.
Here's what the Constitution says about the president's power to appoint: "He shall have Power ... with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments."