This week’s interview is with Melanie Antanesian. Melanie is working on communications and event planning for the Law Library’s Legislative and External Relations Division. Describe your background. I have called the quaint town of Clarksburg, Maryland my home for the majority of my life. I am currently studying public relations and technology entrepreneurship at Montgomery …
The first “gerrymander” was drawn on a map and signed into law on February 11, 1812. Elbridge Gerry, then governor of Massachusetts, signed into law a redistricting plan designed to keep his political party in power in the upcoming election. Upset that the Federalist Party was critical of James Madison’s foreign policy, Gerry signed the …
On the morning of July 11, 1804, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton met in Weehawken, New Jersey for a duel that would prove fatal for Alexander Hamilton. Burr was outraged over derogatory comments made by Hamilton regarding Burr’s character at a dinner hosted by Judge John Tayler in March of 1804. These comments were recorded …
In anticipation of the Library’s upcoming program, “La Città degli Ebrei/The City of the Jews: Segregated Space and the Admission of Strangers in the Jewish Ghetto of Venice,” – a conference held in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy and the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Maryland to …
This week’s interview is with Sheila Hollis, new chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress. Ms. Hollis is also chair of the Washington, D.C. office of Duane Morris LLP, where she specializes in domestic and international energy and environmental matters. Please describe your background. Westerner, great affection for Colorado, Northern …
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 are excited to announce that this year’s Kellogg Biennial Lecture on Jurisprudence will feature political philosopher and Harvard professor Michael Sandel. Set for 3 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29 in Room 119 of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, the lecture, titled “Justice, Neutrality and Law,” will focus on such questions as whether the law …
This is a guest post by Nicolas Boring, French foreign law specialist at the Law Library of Congress. Nicolas wrote FALQs: Freedom of Speech in France and co-collaborated on the post, Does the Haitian Criminal Code Outlaw Making Zombies. Describe your background. I was born and raised in Montreal, Canada and my first language is …
After two years of hard work, the OASIS LegalDocumentML (LegalDocML) Technical Committee is nearing the end of its formal standardization process for the Akoma Ntoso legislative data standard. As you may recall, Akoma Ntoso is an international parliamentary and legislative XML standard that enables the exchange of documents and data across legislative organizations. It was …