Richard Arenberg, adjunct professor at the Taubman Center for Public Policy, recently published a new book titled Defending the Filibuster: The Soul of the Senate. Co-authored with Robert Dove, parliamentarian emeritus of the U.S. Senate, the book is a defense of the Senate’s tradition of extended debate, outlining what the authors describe as the filibuster’s unique role in the legislative process. In a new study of the Senate rules and procedures, Arenberg and Dove contend that it is the filibuster itself that assures stability and deliberation in government. By protecting the rights of the minority, they find, this often misunderstood Senate process helps to preserve the Constitution’s principles of checks and balances and separation of powers. “No one disputes that the filibuster tactic is being abused in the contemporary Senate. However, tinkering with the Senate rules will not eliminate the problem. For that, we need a return to the kind of respect for the Senate itself, its history, and its rules that will restrain senators of both parties from exploiting rights embedded in the rules just because they can,” Arenberg and Dove write.