Several speakers called on Biden to endorse ending the Senate filibuster, which has stymied many of his administration’s more progressive legislative efforts despite a Democratic majority in Congress. Since March, the president and other White House have officials alternately dismissed the idea of eliminating the rule and voiced openness to reforming its use.
At one point, protesters chanted: “Hey! Joe! The filibuster must go!”
But Saperstein was among those at Tuesday’s protest who did not support a complete elimination of the filibuster.
“The segment of the Jewish community that I represent — that is so committed to voting rights — we want to fix the filibuster here to prevent what we’re seeing happening now without abandoning it,” Saperstein told Religion News Service in an interview.
Multiple protesters also called for granting statehood to Washington, D.C., a deeply Democratic area that would shift Congress leftward if given voting representation in the Senate and the House. The cause has grown in popularity among religious voting rights activists this year.
“In my faith tradition there is a Scripture that says: ‘Faith without works is dead,’” said the Rev. Delman Coates, pastor of Maryland’s Mount Ennon Baptist Church. “We’re here today because there’s been too much silence as it relates to voting rights.”
As the the final group departed with a police escort, protesters raised their fists as supporters on the sidewalk sang the civil rights hymn “We Shall Overcome.”
This article originally appeared here.
