When the United States Senate returns to work next week, the fight over President Bush’s judicial nominees could take a terrible turn. Republican leaders in the Senate are considering a procedural move that would significantly curtail the power of the minority to block controversial judicial nominations.

The filibuster can be a maddening tactic for the majority party. In the Senate, it allows just 41 senators to block legislation and nominations that they find objectionable.

Scuttling the filibuster is often referred to as the “nuclear option.” By moving to destroy one of the unique procedural tools that protect minority power in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist threatens to undermine an important check on majority power. The filibuster helps differentiate the Senate from the House of Representatives, where a determined majority can effectively shut the minority out of deliberation and participation in lawmaking.

Filibusters have a notorious history. They have been used in defense of both good and evil. It was Sen. Strom Thurmond who maintained the longest filibuster in Senate history trying to defeat civil rights legislation. It has been used against anti-segregation and anti-lynching laws and has, at times, been a frustrating blight on the country.

The Senate has confirmed more than 200 of President Bush’s judicial nominees, but Democrats have successfully used the filibuster 10 times to block the confirmation of judges they consider radically outside the mainstream. Despite Republican protests to the contrary, this is not the first time a president’s judicial nominees have been blocked by a minority party. Republicans did the same trick to President Clinton, attempting to filibuster one nomination and blocking at least 20 others in committee. It later cases, a filibuster wasn’t necessary because the nominations never made it to the floor.

Ideally, the president and Senate Democrats could come to an accord, where the president would drop his most controversial nominees and Democrats would agree to give their replacements a chance at an up-or-down vote. But that’s unlikely to happen. This president shows little regard for compromise and would likely prefer the fight.

By casting away a Senate tradition that protects the prerogative of senators in the minority, Republicans could escalate a fight that would completely shut down the Senate, stalling the rest of their agenda. They should also remember that few things in politics are forever. The majority party today could find itself in the electoral doghouse tomorrow and be left without even the bone of the filibuster to savor until a better day.