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How to Locate a Published Congressional Hearing: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted by: Robert Brammer

This post is coauthored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, senior legal reference specialists. In 1947, aviation and film industry executive Howard Hughes testified before a hearing of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. The hearings that followed were contentious, with the committee investigating Kaiser-Hughes Aircraft for receiving taxpayer dollars for …

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The Law of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted by: Barbara Bavis

June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride month, and as such, it seems the perfect time to highlight resources that address the legal issues surrounding gender identity and sexual orientation in the United States. While these issues are frequently talked about as if they fall into a singular category, they bleed into multiple …

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Lemon Laws: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted by: Barbara Bavis

This post is coauthored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, senior legal reference specialists. In response to our last post on consumer protection law, we determined there was additional interest in “lemon laws.”  Lemon laws are defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as statutes “designed to protect a consumer who buys a substandard automobile, usu[ally] by …

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Consumer Protection: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted by: Barbara Bavis

This post is coauthored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, senior legal reference specialists. Consumer protection touches on a number of areas of law, and as such, has been broadly defined by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary as “[f]ederal and state laws established to protect retail purchasers of goods and services from inferior, adulterated, hazardous, and …

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U.S. Treaties: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted by: Barbara Bavis

This post is coauthored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, legal reference specialists. Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states that the President “shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur… ” An early attempt by the …

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Landlord-Tenant Law: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted by: Barbara Bavis

This post is coauthored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, legal reference specialists. It is no wonder that we get a large number of questions about landlord-tenant law at the Law Library of Congress, in light of the fact that residential leasing, and the rights and obligations that stem from such agreements, is a pressing legal …

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Foreclosure Defense: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted by: Robert Brammer

This post is coauthored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, legal reference specialists   The loss of a home to foreclosure can be devastating financially and emotionally. In this guide, we hope to provide you with resources that can aid you in researching a defense to a foreclosure action. Please keep in mind that foreclosure …

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Discovery: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted by: Barbara Bavis

This post was co-authored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, Legal Reference Specialists. We receive a wide array of questions here at the Law Library of Congress—from detailed foreign legal research, to tracing U.S. federal legislation, and everything in between—but one area of legal research on which we consistently receive requests for assistance is the …