Filibuster
In May 1977, near the close of the regular session, Meier spoke for forty-three hours against a worker's compensation bill that he considered "anti-business" in scope. His activity blocked the bill from being considered in the waning hours of the session.
The previous filibuster record was for "only" twenty-four hours and was held by U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, when Thurmond spoke against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Thurmond said that the measure, which created the Civil Rights Commission, an advisory body to Congress, and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, headed by a separate assistant attorney general, was an affront to states' rights. The law was guided through Congress by two Texans, Speaker Sam Rayburn of Bonham and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, and signed into law by a native-born Texan, President Dwight D. Eisenhower. At the time of his filibuster against the Civil Rights Act, Thurmond was a segregationist. He later moderated his position on racial matters and served in the Senate from 1954 to 2003, a record tenure since surpassed by Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia.
Meier and Thurmond have another similarity beyond filibustering. Both switched his party affiliation from the Democratic to the Republican Party; Thurmond in 1964, and Meier in 1981.
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