King v. Burwell, a Law Librarian is Sighted? – Pic of the Week

As we have mentioned in previous posts, the Law Library of Congress is a Supreme Court depository library.  This means that we collect the records and briefs filed in cases before the court.  We also receive copies of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions hot off the presses.  Yesterday we received a bench opinion for King et al. v. Burwell which we eagerly seized and paged through.  For this first read through we were not concerned with the court’s decision as to whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) made tax credits available to individuals enrolled in a Federal exchange.  No, we tore past the opening pages of the opinion to page 14 where our former colleague, John Cannan, was cited for his article on the legislative history of ACA, A Legislative History of the Affordable Care Act: How Legislative Procedure Shapes Legislative History, 105 L. Lib. J. 131.

We believe that our nurturing of John while he was a legal research analyst here in Public Services helped to contribute to his success.  We provided careful instruction in legislative history.  We generously let him share the late nights and snow days while Congress debated this law.  And, some of the Law Library’s master bakers kept up his strength with plentiful baked goods to help him achieve this height of notoriety and fame.

Congratulations John – from all your former colleagues here at the Law Library!