King Cotton, the Munificent Slavery and (Under)development in the United States, 1789-1865. Joseph A. Francis. Working Paper. April 2021. “Slavery made an important contribution to the development of the United States up to the Civil War. Slaves were were necessary for the country’s cotton boom because cotton was not sufficiently remunerative to attract yeoman farmers.… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Congress
Policing and ‘Bluelining’
Gruber, Aya, Policing and ‘Bluelining’ (December 11, 2020). Houston Law Review, Vol. 58, No. 2, 2021, U of Colorado Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 21-1, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3746717 “In this essay written for the Frankel Lecture symposium on police killings of Black Americans, I explore the increasingly popular claim that racialized brutality is… Continue Reading
What the Constitution Means to Me
The New York Times: “Note the last two words in the title of Heidi Schreck’s hit show, “What the Constitution Means to Me”: This is a highly personal take, not a historical or legal lecture. Yet Schreck succeeds in widening her autobiographical play into a paean for basic fairness: The American Constitution, admired as it… Continue Reading
Domestic Terrorism Cases on the Rise in February Following January 6 Breach of Capitol
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse – “In February 2021, according to federal internal case-by-case records on prosecutions obtained after successful court litigation by TRAC, there were 57 prosecutions of domestic terrorism filed in the federal district courts. The majority of these prosecutions—54—were filed in the District of Columbia following the storming of the Capitol on January… Continue Reading
Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community
Office of the Director of National Intelligence: “This annual report, April 2021 of worldwide threats to the national security of the United States responds to Section 617 of the FY21 Intelligence Authorization Act (P.L. 116-260). This report reflects the collective insights of the Intelligence Community (IC), which is committed every day to providing the nuanced,… Continue Reading
Scope of CDC Authority Under Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act
CRS Report – Scope of CDC Authority Under Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA), April 13, 2021: “Since the beginning of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, all levels of government have grappled with how to stem the spread of the disease. Until the recent authorization of several COVID-19 vaccines, community mitigation… Continue Reading
Capitol Police Told to Hold Back on Riot Response on Jan. 6
The New York Times – “The Capitol Police had clearer advance warnings about the Jan. 6 attack than were previously known, including the potential for violence in which “Congress itself is the target.” But officers were instructed by their leaders not to use their most aggressive tactics to hold off the mob, according to a… Continue Reading
Explore Congressional Reactions to Historic Events on Congress.gov
In Custodia Legis: “The Congress.gov team has received feedback requesting that we add content from prior congresses to the Congressional Record and public law text collections. We are pleased to announce that we have made substantial progress on this request. The Bound Congressional Record collection now goes back to the 82nd Congress (1951-1953) and the… Continue Reading
Legal Issues Related to Transportation Mask-Wearing Mandates
CRS Legal Sidebar – Legal Issues Related to Transportation Mask-Wearing Mandates April 12, 2021: “On January 21, 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing federal agencies to require mask wearing in a range of transportation contexts nationwide. In response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an order (Mask Order) requiring… Continue Reading
ITER, The Grand Illusion: A Forensic Investigation of Power Claims
“Is nuclear fusion a likely solution to climate change? Is fusion a viable energy alternative? For 70 years, fusion scientists have promoted new design concepts, pointed to computer models, and unequivocally stated that fusion is the answer. But where is the experimental evidence that the scientific method demands? And why has energy from nuclear fusion… Continue Reading
GPO and Libraries Set Goal to Make Every US Government Document Accessible
“The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) is undertaking a massive effort to capture and make publicly accessible every U.S. Government document through the National Collection of U.S. Government Public Information (National Collection). GPO will do this by digitizing documents and making them accessible on govinfo and the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP), as well as… Continue Reading
Columbia Launched Democracy Reform and Voting Rights in the United States Web Archive
“Columbia University Libraries is pleased to announce the launch of the Democracy Reform and Voting Rights in the United States Web Archive. The ongoing struggle in the United States between advocates for voting rights and official proponents of voter suppression measures intensified in 2020 during a bitter presidential election campaign conducted amidst the substantial additional… Continue Reading
