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Archive for the Collections Category (578 posts)

Congress.gov September 2022 New, Tip, and Top – Part II

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At the beginning of September, Margaret and Andrew brought us the news that the Congress.gov API is now available, providing users with convenient access to accurate and structured congressional data through a REST API organized in a hierarchical browse format.

In this release, we are adding transcripts to bills and resolutions from the 6th-10th Congresses (1799-1809) so they are searchable. Also in this release, on the advanced legislation search form, when you select, “Choose House Committees” or “Choose Senate Committees,” there is now an option to “Check All” of the committees on those pages.

You can now choose to "check all" committee on House and Senate committee pages linked from the Congress.gov advanced legislation search form.

You can now choose to “check all” committees on House and Senate committee pages linked from the Congress.gov advanced legislation search form.

Enhancements

Enhancement – Legislation – Search Historical Bill Text

  • Bill texts from the 6th – 10th Congress are searchable.

Enhancement – Legislation – Advanced Search

Search Tip

Try the new appropriations bill search that is linked on the Congress.gov homepage under the heading, “Bill Searches and Lists.” This search returns appropriations bills from Fiscal Year (FY)22 and FY23.

Most-Viewed Bills

The following are the most-viewed bills for the week of September 18, 2022.

1. S.4428 [117th] Taiwan Policy Act of 2022
2. H.R.5376 [117th] Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
3. H.R.1808 [117th] Assault Weapons Ban of 2022
4. H.R.8404 [117th] Respect for Marriage Act
5. H.R.82 [117th] Social Security Fairness Act of 2021
6. S.623 [117th] Sunshine Protection Act of 2021
7. S.2992 [117th] American Innovation and Choice Online Act
8. H.R.3684 [117th] Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
9. H.R.3617 [117th] Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act
10. H.R.3173 [117th] Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act of 2021

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Collection Highlights: Simon Greenleaf and the First American Legal Citation Index

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Last September, I published a post on this blog about Chancellor James Kent in which I wrote about Chancellor Kent’s role in promoting the professionalization of court reporting in America. In this post, I thought I would expand on the subject of legal research in early America by highlighting the first American author to publish […]

Hispanic Heritage Month 2022: New Acquisitions

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The United States has been commemorating Hispanic Heritage Month since 1968. The celebration honors the civic and cultural contributions and achievements made by our fellow Americans of Hispanic heritage, and also Mexico’s independence day (September 16) and the anniversaries of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. To honor these people and celebrations, […]

The Complex Origins of Western Legal Traditions

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A few months ago, I read an absolutely fascinating book on early human societies, “The Dawn of Everything.” Co-authored by David Graeber and David Wengrow, this book offers a critique of popular views on western civilization and the traditional narratives of mankind’s linear development from primitivism to civilization. It is a long book, but I […]

Improved Accessibility for Global Legal Monitor Articles

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The Global Legal Monitor is a publication of the Law Library of Congress that covers legal news and developments from around the world.

In an effort to ensure the Global Legal Monitor is accessible to all of our patrons, we have added ReadSpeaker to each article. After you select an article, just click “listen to this page” at the top, left-hand side of the screen to have the article read aloud to you.

Mexico City’s Desagüe of 1607: From an Island to a Water Crisis

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The following is a guest post by Grislean Palacios, who served as a summer 2022 remote intern transcribing and researching documents in the Herencia: Centuries of Spanish Legal Documents crowdsourcing campaign at the Law Library of Congress. Special thanks to Francisco Macías for translation and analysis assistance. The Herencia Crowdsourcing Campaign collection includes historic documents dealing with criminal cases, real […]

Celebrating over 3,000 Historical and Contemporary Legal Reports Now Online

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For more than eighty years, the Law Library of Congress has been engaged in the preparation of research reports on legal topics, with an emphasis on foreign, comparative, and international law, in response to requests from Congress, the executive and judicial branches of the federal government, and others. The Law Library has authored thousands of […]

Land Claims Cases of Indigenous Nations in New York

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The following is a guest post by Amanda Buettner, a remote intern in the Digital Resources Division of the Law Library of Congress, and co-authored by Jennifer Davis. “Great nations, like great men, should keep their word.” Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black expressed his disappointment with these words in 1956, when he wrote the words […]

Celebrate the Law Library of Congress’ 190th Anniversary with a Rare Book Video

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It was on this day in 1832 that the Law Library of Congress was created as a department of the Library of Congress by statute. Since that time, the Law Library has grown to be the largest law library in the world, featuring an unparalleled collection of domestic, foreign, international, and comparative legal materials. This […]