On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a non-binding “sense of the Senate” proposal that would have called on Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

Nine words taken from Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution are causing quite a stir among journalists and pundits today. The “controversial” clause reads in relevant part:

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings….

Christmas is a time for hope and as a new Congress is sworn in after the New Year comes the hope that a majority of our elected representatives will honor their oath of office and truly “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and “bear true faith and allegiance to the same….”

The noble historian Tacitus recorded the events that occurred in Rome immediately after the destruction of the Republic and during the rise and establishment of the absolutism of the emperors who reigned in Rome after the death of Augustus.

In the spirit of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, President Obama and his starting line up are running a full court press this week in the hopes of slam-dunking a healthcare package.

Last week, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta told representatives of Alabama and Georgia that they were going to wait for the highest court’s decision in the Arizona immigration case before handing down a ruling of their own.

On Tuesday, Judge Clark Waddoups (left) of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah announced that he would hold off issuing a ruling in the case challenging Utah’s recently enacted immigration statute until the Supreme Court hands down its decision in the case against the Arizona statute currently pending.

On Monday, attorneys representing Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (left) filed their opening brief with the clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court. In the filing, the Governor asks the high court to overturn an injunction handed down by the district court blocking the enforcement of several key provisions of the Grand Canyon State’s controversial anti-illegal immigration statute passed in 2010

On December 22, 2011, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina issued a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of key provisions of the South Carolina immigration statute. Last month, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson (left) filed papers in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals requesting that court reverse the lower court’s ruling.

A judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina issued a preliminary injunction on December 22 against key provisions of the South Carolina immigration statute. The plaintiffs in the case include a group of civil rights organizations and the United States Department of Justice.