[00:00.00]President Obama's Democratic Party[00:02.04]has secured the critical 60 seat majority in the US Senate[00:05.52]that can help it override any Republican obstructions on Capitol Hill.[00:08.69]This happened when the Democrats[00:11.12]won the last undecided senate seat from November's election[00:14.17]after the Supreme Court in the state of Minnesota[00:16.97]declared the Democratic candidate Al Franken the winner.[00:19.95]Richard Lister reports from Washington.[00:22.44]For almost eight months[00:24.24]the two candidates had been locked[00:26.17]in a bitter fight in the Minnesota Courts[00:28.10]over the result of November's Senate election.[00:30.28]Just a few hundred votes separated them[00:32.52]after the 2.8 million cast.[00:34.94]The initial count favoured the Republican Norm Coleman[00:38.61]but the recount gave the majority[00:40.23]to his Democratic Party rival Al Franken.[00:42.53]And the State Supreme Court is now upheld that verdict.[00:45.70]His victory gives the Democrats 60 votes in the senate[00:49.25]and the potential to overturn[00:50.93]Republican efforts to block legislation.