The following is a fact-check from the July 25, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

MARC MORIAL (Urban League President) | There have been more filibusters in the last two years than in the previous century – FALSE

MR. MORIAL: One of the things this distracts from is the news of the week that the Senate cut out $1 billion for summer jobs, but is prepared to spend $60 billion on a troop surge if — in Afghanistan. One of the things this distracts from has been the repeated use of the filibuster to block legislation and block measures that would help the economy in urban communities, and that, to me…

MR. MORIAL: …that, to me, and the persistent use of the filibuster, it being used more times in the last two years than in the previous century…

Even in the early days, representatives and senators used the filibuster to stall debate indefinitely. In 1917, US senators adopted a rule that allowed the debate to end by a 2/3 majority vote, which is known as cloture. Then, in 1975, senators reduced the number of votes required for cloture from 2/3 to 3/5 or 60 of the 100 senators.

According to the Senate historian’s office, which provides a list of the cloture votes since 1919, there were 553 cloture votes between 1919 and 2000. Currently, the 111th Congress (2008-2010) has had 65 cloture votes. Since the records of cloture votes held by the Senate historian’s office only goes back to 1919, we could not tally up the total amount of cloture votes for the previous century (100 years), but we are still able to do this check because from 1919 to 2000 there were 553 cloture votes and in the last 2 years, there has only been 65 cloture votes.

It is worth noting, however, that over the last 30 years the filibuster’s use has been increasing. The 110th Congress (2006 to 2008) tallied up a total of 112 cloture votes – the most ever recorded for a Congress. In the previous century, it took 81 years to have 553 cloture votes and in the last decade, there have been 341.

Regardless, because there were a total of 551 cloture votes between the years 1919 and 2000 and only 65 cloture votes in the last 2 years, we rate Mr. Morial’s statement FALSE.

The following fact-check took a combined 2.5 hours.

The following is a fact-check of the May 16, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY) | Pres. Obama, VP Biden, Sen. Harry Reid, & Sen. Patrick Leahy filibustered the S.C. nomination of Sam Alito – TRUE

SEN. McCONNELL: the way Sam Alito was, who was filibustered by the president, the vice president, the Democratic leader and the chairman of the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. I’ve never filibustered a Supreme Court nomination.

From crowd-sourcer James:

In 2006, Senator John Kerry along with Obama, Biden, Reid and Leahy (at the time the ranking member of the Judiciary) did mount a brief but unsucessful filibuster of Alito’s nomination. Here is the link to the cloture vote:
U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote

Page 2 of this pdf by the Congressional Research Service has detailed information and history on cloture attempts on nominations. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32878.pdf

James’ research and conclusion is sound. Senator McConnell’s statement gets a TRUE.

This fact-check took a combined 20 minutes.

The following is a fact-check of the May 16, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY) | “I’ve never filibustered a Supreme Court nomination” – TRUE

SEN. McCONNELL: I’ve never filibustered a Supreme Court nomination.

From crowd-sourcer James:

It’s true that McConnell has never filibustered a Supreme Court nomination. There have only been four: Abe Fortas in 1968, Rehquist twice, in 1971 and 1986, and Samuel Alito in 2006. All were unsuccessful. McConnell was elected to the Senate in 1984, so he has only had two chances to join a filibuster of a Supreme Court nomination, Rehnquist for Chief Justice, and Samuel Alito. Those two filibusters — though it is disputed whether the Rehnquist debate was actually a filibuster — were mounted by the Democrats, and it is true, McConnell did not join them.

Page 2 of this pdf by the Congressional Research Service has detailed information and history on cloture attempts on nominations. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32878.pdf

James’ research and conclusion is sound. Senator McConnell’s statement gets a TRUE.

This fact-check took a combined 25 minutes.