Frist protest continues for third day

A student-led filibuster continued into its third day today on the Frist North Lawn, drawing more than 60 students to speak in protest of a proposed congressional rule change that would circumvent Democrats' efforts to block the appointment of some of President Bush's judicial nominees.

The protest, which began at 11 a.m. Tuesday, will last through this afternoon, event organizers said.

"What has been striking to all of us is the outpouring of student support," said Asheesh Siddique '07, who helped organize the event. "We didn't think this [filibuster] would go beyond a few hours."

The contested proposal would declare the current Senate filibuster — which calls for a 60-vote majority to override — unconstitutional when used to block judicial nominees, effectively allowing a simple majority to confirm nominees.

The Republican Party currently holds a 55-member majority in the Senate.

Not all University students support the protest.

"It is almost, if not completely, unprecedented for judicial nominees to be filibustered," said Dylan Hogarty '06, president of the College Republicans. "I don't think [the Princeton students] are going to make much of a difference."

Other students said the filibuster is too small to be effective.

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"The most successful protests are thus those that involve a large number of participants," Ira Leeds '06, publisher of The Princeton Tory, said in an email. "If they had really wanted to engage the campus in some sort of dialogue regarding the Senate filibuster, I feel they could have found a more substantive format for their event."

Despite the occasional heckler and Tuesday's brief confrontation with Public Safety over the group's right to rally outside of Frist Campus Center, there have been no other clashes, Josh Weitz '97 said. Weitz, a postdoctoral student who helped organized the demonstration, spent two continuous hours reading from the U.S. Constitution and reports on the judicial nominees.

Weitz said he is determined to bring information about the "nuclear option" to the undergraduate community because "what happens [in the Senate] in the next couple of weeks may determine our court system for the rest of our generation."

Many students also rallied throughout Tuesday night to make a bolder statement.

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"We are willing to sacrifice our work and comfort and actually stand up for what we believe in," Matt Solomon '06 said.

At about 2 a.m. Wednesday, it started to rain so hard that protesters had to put away their reading materials. Jeff Brown '06 spent his time at the microphone reciting memorized lines from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and "A Winter's Tale," the latter of which he performed last weekend. Fellow cast members sat on the lawn to cheer him on.

During the night, the protesters spoke to an "interesting mix" of exhausted students leaving Frist Campus Center and "a bunch of giddy drunk people coming back from the street," Solomon said.

The filibuster effort will continue as long as the student support lasts, he added.