On Thu, 21 Jan 2010, Bill O'Connor wrote:
>> http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Gold_Gupta_JLPP_article.pdf
>
> A well made argument, but I just don't see what authority would prevent
> the majority party from changing the rules.
The rules themselves. The Senate adopts rules at the beginning of each session. If it adopts the present rules without change, one of the rules is that it takes a 66 vote majority to change the rules.
But it doesn't have to adopt the rules from last session. It can make up new ones, from scratch or by amending. And the rules are adopted by majority vote.
Michael