Senate Democrats have pushed through a historic rule change that will end the filibustering of most executive and judicial nominees. By a simple majority, Democrats voted to lower the threshold for ending filibusters of presidential nominees from 60 votes to 51 votes. That means a minority vote can no longer block a majority’s support for a nomination. Democrats say they acted to counter unprecedented Republican opposition in recent years — of the 168 filibusters against presidential nominees in U.S. history, half have come against President Obama’s picks. Earlier this week, Republicans blocked a third consecutive Obama nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. At the White House, Obama backed the Senate rule change.

President Obama: “I realize that neither party has been blameless for these tactics. They’ve developed over years, and it seems as if they’ve continuously escalated. But today’s pattern of obstruction, it just isn’t normal. It’s not what our founders envisioned. A deliberate and determined effort to obstruct everything, no matter what the merits, just to re-fight the results of an election, is not normal. And for the sake of future generations, we can’t let it become normal.”

The new rule change does not apply to Supreme Court nominees or to legislation, as many progressives have urged. In a statement, the group Common Cause said: “The Senate is still broken and the rule change is a small fix for a huge problem. The minority still has the power to use the filibuster to block debate and action on legislation favored by the majority.”