The following is a guest post is by Betty Lupinacci, Lead Technician for Legal Processing Workflow Resolution in our Collection Services Division. It is part travelogue which includes a visit to an inaugural site for a US President outside Washington, DC. What does a trip to Cooperstown, NY have to do with this week’s Inaugural theme? Well, …
I had an interesting query a few months ago from a patron about a proposed constitutional amendment which the patron believed President Lincoln had signed. This was unusual in itself since Article V of the U.S. Constitution does not require presidents to sign constitutional amendments passed by Congress. The key to this query was the date …
The following is a guest post by George Sadek, a Senior Legal Analyst at the Law Library of Congress. George has previously written posts on Egypt’s constitutional referendum, elections in Saudi Arabia, and the trial of Seif al Islam al Gaddafi in Libya. The development and adoption of a new Egyptian Constitution has received a …
Today is the anniversary of the ratification of the first written constitution in American history, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which took place on January 14, 1639. The Fundamental Orders outlined the form of government that would be established over the Connecticut River Towns, enumerating its powers and describing the duties of citizens active in government. A fascinating document …
A few weeks ago, I wrote about my hometown library, the Albright Memorial Library, in Scranton, Pennsylvania and its participation in the Federal Depository Library Program. As described in the post, I have a card catalog from the library in our home. My colleague, Elizabeth Moore, stopped by my office last week to ask whether …
This post is co-authored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, Legal Reference Librarians. Continuing with our Beginner’s Guide series, we turn next to labor and employment law. This area of the law has been prominent in the news over the past several months, particularly in light of the union stronghold of the Midwest, Michigan, becoming …
The following is a guest post by Peter Roudik, Director of the Global Legal Research Center and a specialist on the laws of Eastern European and former Soviet Union jurisdictions. In previous posts, my colleagues have discussed different types of laws from various countries. These have included unusual laws, little-known laws, and laws that were …
King Canute may have failed to stop the rising of the tide when he commanded the sea to halt, but Pope Gregory XIII was able to decree the annulment of time itself; or to be more specific, he declared the erasure of 10 days in October of 1582, and he pulled it off in such …
The following is a guest post by David Mao, Law Librarian of Congress. He has previously guest posted Justifying Speed, Food for Thought, Another Trip Down Memory Lane, 2012 Burton Awards – Pic of the Week, Shreddy: From the Office of the Law Librarian – Pic of the Week, From the Desk of the Law Librarian, The Law …