On this day 150 years ago, December 18, 1865, then Secretary of State William H. Seward issued the following statement verifying the ratification of the 13th Amendment. These two digitized images come from A Century of Lawmaking. The image below comes from the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress and shows that the …
In our quest to retire THOMAS, we have made many enhancements to Congress.gov this year. Our first big announcement was the addition of email alerts, which notify users of the status of legislation, new issues of the Congressional Record, and when Members of Congress sponsor and cosponsor legislation. That development was soon followed by the addition of treaty documents and better …
In Custodia Legis was named to the ABA Journal’s 9th Annual Blawg 100! This is the second year in a row for the Law Library of Congress blog to be included. We are thrilled to be honored again as one of the top 100 best blogs for a legal audience. We are fortunate to have …
On a trip back home to Indiana, I stopped in at the Indiana State House. I always enjoy visiting buildings with a dome (the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress Jefferson Building, and the Hoosier Dome), so it is no surprise that I think the Indiana State House is a beautiful building. The Indiana Supreme …
After a quick trip to Harpers Ferry, I was curious to learn more about its history. At a recent blog team meeting, Betty mentioned that it was almost the anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. This felt like a perfect opportunity for me to do some research. The event took place on October 16, 1859. …
This has been a great year as we continue our push to develop and refine Congress.gov. There were email alerts added in February, treaties and better default text in March, the Federalist Papers and more browse options in May, and accessibility and user requested features in July. With this October update, Senate Executive Communications from …
We strive to bring you the best web experience possible. Over time we have updated our homepage and our website, helped launch Congress.gov, and introduced the Indigenous Law Portal. Today, I am happy to announce that there is a newly enhanced Global Legal Monitor (GLM). The Global Legal Monitor is managed by editors Connie Johnson and Wendy Zeldin. …
The following is a guest post by Rob Sukol, Deputy Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives. Rob previously did the guest post titled “The United States Code Online – Downloadable XML Files and More” on In Custodia Legis. As introduced in my previous post, since 1926, the United States Code has been the official …
Web traffic tends to slowdown in the summer. The weather gets nice and people leave their computers and devices behind. It’s easy to miss a post or two while busy on vacation or recess. Thankfully, we keep track of our metrics and can share what has been popular over the last three months. While down compared …