End of 2019 Update From Washington, DC

This has been another very interesting year in the US Capitol. The most recent excitement is about the process of impeachment. I remember the previous two attempts, which ended in a resignation and a failure to convict. I am not going to even try to predict how the process will end this time. But if you want to learn more about this, the Library of Congress has it covered.

On December 9, Andrew Winston posted that “The Library of Congress has updated the Constitution Annotated essays pertaining to impeachment and incorporated them in the annotations to Article I, Article II, and Article III of the Constitution. In addition, the updated impeachment essays are consolidated in Resources about Impeachment. Additional information on impeachment is available on the website’s Beyond the Constitution Annotated: Table of Additional Resources under Resources.

The Library of Congress launched the Constitution Annotated on Constitution Day, September 17, 2019. The website provides online access to the “Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation,” which has served as Congress’s official record of the Constitution for over a century and explains in layman’s terms the Constitution’s origins, how the nation’s most important law was crafted and ratified, and how every provision in the Constitution has been interpreted. With advanced search tools and a modern, user-friendly interface, the new website makes the 3,000 pages of the Constitution Annotated fully searchable and accessible for the first time to online audiences-including Congress, legal scholars, law students, and anyone interested in U.S. constitutional law.”

Another source for the text of the U.S. Constitution and commentary on it is the National Constitution Center’s Interactive Constitution. This site does not appear to have searchable text of the Constitution like the Constitution Annotated does, but it does have a searchable Media Library with podcasts and educational videos. And they have a free app available too.

The Law Library of Congress also posted their December update for Congress.gov. “The November release also brought improvements to the accessibility of search results for patrons using screen readers. With our December release, the addition of next and previous arrows improves navigation between committee hearing detail pages. In addition, the compact view on the cosponsors tab on legislation pages makes it easy to cut and paste cosponsor information for use in other applications.”

I wish you all a happy holiday season and a peaceful new year.