Keeping It Brief!

News and information from the Dickinson Law Library

You are here: Home / Archives for GPO

Constitution Day 2018

by

About Constitution Day

On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document they had created.  September 17 is recognized in the United States as Constitution Day, its purpose to commemorate the signing of the supreme law of the land and to honor the privileges and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship for both native-born and naturalized citizens. In celebrating this national day, public schools and governmental offices are encouraged to provide educational programs which promote a better understanding of the Constitution.

The Law Library will again distribute free pocket-sized copies of the U.S. Constitution, courtesy of the Federal Depository Library Program (while supplies last).  They are available at the circulation desk display area.  Stop by to pick up one!

Law Library Print Resources

Databases

  • CQ Electronic Library
    Resources now include The U.S. Constitution A-Z, The Supreme Court Collection, Encyclopedia of the First Amendment, and more.
  • Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation (CONAN)
    The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, popularly known as the Constitution Annotated, encompasses the U.S. Constitution and analysis and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution with in-text annotations of cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. GPO provides access to Constitution Annotated editions and supplements from 1992 forward. The volume has been published as a bound edition every ten years, with cumulative updates issued in the intervening years biannually as inserts that address new constitutional case law, primarily from U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The analysis is provided by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress.
  • Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution
    Over 60,000 documents trace the debate over the ratification of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This scholarly edition includes retains the significant editorial contributions of the original print series as well as the ability to search and browse by keyword, name, date, and state.

Online Resources

  • Constitution Day
    The Constitution Day website celebrates the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and provides information on events, the Founding Fathers, the full text of the Constitution and Amendments, and offers gift items for purchase.
  • The American Founding
    Resources from TeachingAmericanHistory.org covering the Constitutional Convention, Federalists/Anti-Federalists, Ratification of the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
  • Charters of Freedom – Constitution of the United States
    Online exhibit from the National Archives.
  • United States Senate
    This annotated version of the Constitution provides the original text (left-hand column) with commentary about the meaning of the original text and how it has changed since 1789 (right-hand column).
  • CQ Press in Context – Constitution Day
    This website provides a lesson plan and material from a variety of electronic CQ Press sources to help instructors and students observe Constitution Day. CQ Press resources include primary sources, pro/con debates on important constitutional issues, encyclopedia articles on the Constitution, expert commentary and analysis by CQ writers, and more. In addition, this site provides links to additional free sources available on the Web and links to CQ Press books and online collections related to the Constitution.
  • Legal Information Institute – Constitutional Law
    As the Constitution is the foundation of the United States, constitutional law deals with some of the fundamental relationships within our society. This includes relationships among the states, the states and the federal government, the three branches (executive, legislative, judicial) of the federal government, and the rights of the individual in relation to both federal and state government.
  • Law Library of Congress
    Current legal topics.
  • The Founders’ Constitution
    In this unique anthology, Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner draw on the writings of a wide array of people engaged in the problem of making popular government safe, steady, and accountable. The documents included range from the early seventeenth century to the 1830s, from the reflections of philosophers to popular pamphlets, from public debates in ratifying conventions to the private correspondence of the leading political actors of the day.
  • National Constitution Center
    The National Constitution Center is the first and only nonprofit, nonpartisan institution devoted to the most powerful vision of freedom ever expressed: the U.S. Constitution.
  • The Annenberg Classroom – Teaching the Constitution

There’s An App!

  • U.S. Constitution: Analysis and Interpretation
    The U.S. Constitution: Analysis and Interpretation app is a mobile version of the Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, a comprehensive analytical legal treatise prepared by attorneys of the Congressional Research Service at the direction of the United States Senate and issued as Senate Document No. 112-9. The app is presented by the Library of Congress using data provided by the Government Printing Office.

Just for Fun

  • Constitutional Crossword Puzzles
    Eight puzzles of 4 different knowledge levels – 2 basic, 2 intermediate, 2 advanced, and 2 expert – to test your skills as a puzzler and knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.
  • Constitutional Word Finds
    Five word finds to search for all things Constitutional.

Black History Month: Civil Rights Activists

by

February is Black History Month. In honor of this occasion, the Law Library will publish a blog each week highlighting resources that focus on African American leaders in their law-related fields: Civil Rights Activists; Justices & Judges; Government Officials; and, Firsts in Their Field.

In this first entry of the series, explore materials on African American history and some of the nation’s most revered civil rights activists, who are known for their fight against social injustices and lasting impact on the lives of black citizens.  Highlighted resources include documentaries and books by or about James Baldwin, Daisy Bates, Rosa Parks, Charles Hamilton Houston, Benjamin Hooks, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Featured Databases:

Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law
This HeinOnline collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Also included in the collection are UNC Press titles, scholarly articles and periodicals, and much more.

Oxford African-American Studies Center
The Oxford African American Studies Center provides over 10,000 articles by top scholars in the field on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. The core content includes: Africana; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present; Black Women in America, Second Edition; African American National Biography; Dictionary of African Biography; and, The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought.

govinfo : Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, partnership with The University of Maryland
Since its inception in 1957, the United States Commission on Civil Rights has been at the forefront of efforts by the Federal Government and state governments to examine and resolve issues related to race, ethnicity, religion and, more recently, sexual orientation. Although the fortunes of the Commission have ebbed and flowed with changes in presidential administrations, the Commission has continued to be a vital part of the effort to build an America that is truly equal. By providing access to the historical record of this important federal agency, the Thurgood Marshall Law Library will offer scholars an opportunity to examine the efforts of the Commission more closely. Available as a partnership of the United States Government Printing Office, The United States Commission on Civil Rights and the Thurgood Marshall Law Library.

Peace Research Abstracts
Covers essential areas related to peace research, including conflict resolution, international affairs, peace psychology, Genocide, human rights, international law, refugees voluntary and nongovernmental organizations, armed conflicts, civil wars, territorial disputes, terrorism, counterterrorism, democratisation, migration, arms control, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, humanitarian aid, cultural relations, race relations, interpersonal violence, ethnic relations, race relations, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline.

Print & Video Resources:

Eyes on the Prize : America’s Civil Rights Movement
Call Number: E185.61.E94 2006 DVD
Volumes 1-3 tell the story of America’s civil rights years from 1954 to 1965; volumes 4-7 examine the new America from 1966 to 1985, from community power to the human alienation of urban poverty.

The Long Shadow of Little Rock: A Memoir by Daisy Bates
Call Number: F419.L7B3
On September 3, 1957, Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to surround all-white Central High School and prevent the entry of nine black students, challenging the Supreme Court’s 1954 order to integrate all public schools. On September 25, Daisy Bates, an official of the NAACP in Arkansas, led the nine children into the school with the help of federal troops sent by President Eisenhower–the first time in eighty-one years that a president had dispatched troops to the South to protect the constitutional rights of black Americans.

Boycott
Call Number: PN1997.2.B696 2001 DVD
One woman refuses to give up her seat in a “whites only” section of a public bus. The bus stops. The city stops. The world stops. December 1, 1955, Montgomery, Alabama. A time when resentment gives birth to rebellion; when a gesture has the power to bring about change. This single act by Rosa Parks inspires an uprising that will make history, and make a leader of Martin Luther King, Jr.

I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin
Call Number: E185.61.I15 2017 DVD
I Am Not Your Negro is a 2016 American documentary film based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript, Remember This House. The film explores the history of racism in the United States through Baldwin’s reminiscences of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr, as well as his personal observations of American history.

The March for Civil Rights : The Benjamin Hooks Story by Benjamin Hooks and Jerry Guess
Call Number: KF373.H66A3 2003
The author recounts his inspiring leadership role in the ongoing struggle for civil rights and racial equality in America and abroad.

Selma
Call Number: PN1997.2.S4384 2015 DVD
The unforgettable true story chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.

Undoing Plessy : Charles Hamilton Houston, Race, Labor, and the Law, 1895-1950 by Gordon Andrews
Call Number: KF373.H644A53 2014
The book explores the manner in which African Americans countered racialized impediments, attacking their legal underpinnings during the first half of the twentieth century. Specifically, Undoing Plessy explores the professional life of Charles Hamilton Houston, and the way it informs our understanding of change in the pre-Brown era. Houston dedicated his life to the emancipation of oppressed people, and was inspired early-on to choose the law as a tool to become, in his own words, a “social engineer.” Further, Houston’s life provides a unique lens through which one may more accurately view the threads of race, labor, and the law as they are woven throughout American society.

Making Sense of Presidential Documents

by

The President may take many types of action that result in different categories of documents. Since taking office, we have seen President Trump issue Executive Orders, Presidential Memoranda, and Proclamations. But, how are they different?

There is an argument that all actions taken by the President are of equal importance and should all be simply Executive Orders. The intended audience of the action and the type of action are often the defining characteristics of a given category of Presidential action. Executive Orders are directed internally to Federal agencies and order specific action with regard to existing laws.  A Presidential Memorandum is also directed internally to federal agencies to provide guidance on agency policies. Some would argue that a Presidential Memorandum is simply an Executive Order by another name (See “By Order of the President” – citation below.)

Proclamations are externally focused announcements by the President, such as the announcement of a day of national recognition such as February as American Heart Month. Many Proclamations of this nature are made by sitting Presidents, but a Proclamation can be much more serious. President Harry Truman’s first Proclamation was to announce the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The above categories do not represent the full spectrum of actions available to the President. National Security Directives, made to ensure the safety of the country, may not be public due to security concerns and thus are very difficult to discover. Executive Agreements allow the President to make a treaty-like agreement, outside of the normal Congressional avenue. Presidential Signing Statements are written comments made by the President at the time a bill is signed into law. Signing Statements are becoming increasingly important because they are now being used to provide specific interpretations of the new law and direct how it should be applied.

Presidential documents are available on the White House  website. [Note: this is not an official publication and recent Executive Orders posted on this website did not contain the correct text.] The official source of Presidential actions, the Compilation of Presidential Documents, can be found on the Government Printing Office’s website.

For more information on Executive Orders, see:

GPO Launches govinfo

by

fdlpgraphicFDLP News Release: The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) launches govinfo and ushers in a new, dynamic way for the public to discover and access Government information on the three branches of the Federal Government. Govinfo is a user-friendly, modernized site that provides an easy to use navigation system accessible on smartphones, tablets, laptops and personal computers. GPO receives information from Federal agencies and organizations in all three branches of the Government. Its content feeds The Library of Congress’ www.congress.gov and the Federal Register site. Currently in beta, govinfo will replace GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) in 2017.

There are more than 1.5 million titles available on govinfo, with more added daily. Collections on govinfo include:

  • The Congressional Record
  • Federal Register
  • Congressional Calendars, Hearings, Reports
  • Bills
  • The U.S. Code
  • Code of Federal Regulations
  • U.S. Courts Opinions
  • The Federal Budget

Some key features on govinfo:

  • Mobile-friendly optimized for screen size
  • An ABC list of collections
  • Quick Links to popular publications
  • Related Documents
  • Shareable social media content

GPO is the Federal Government’s official, digital, secure resource for producing, procuring, cataloging, indexing, authenticating, disseminating, and preserving the official information products of the U.S. Government. The GPO is responsible for the production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the Federal Government, including U.S. passports for the Department of State as well as the official publications of Congress, the White House, and other Federal agencies in digital and print formats. GPO provides for permanent public access to Federal Government information at no charge through govinfo, partnerships with approximately 1,200 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library Program, and our secure online bookstore. For more information, please visit www.gpo.gov.

Dickinson Law has been part of the depository program since 1979. Learn more from our United States Government Documents research guide.

 

Skip to toolbar