Category: Law and Justice

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

In recent posts on this blog, I wrote about two early American lawyers who argued that a theory of natural law should be at the heart of the nation’s legal education. Those posts focused on the writings of James Wilson, one of the giants of the founding era, and David Hoffman, a remarkably learned lawyer from Baltimore who established the University of Maryland’s first school of law. As I wrote in one of those posts, natural law is the idea that people have basic rights and obligations by nature. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, they are implanted in us by “nature and nature’s God.” That idea, which was discussed widely among the founders of the United States, was part of an ongoing thread in legal and political thought in the West that had its roots in antiquity; it was represented by several distinct branches of thought even in the 18th century when Jefferson crafted the Declaration’s language. Both Wilson and Hoffman relied heavily in their work on the major authors of the Protestant branch of the natural law tradition, among whom were figures such as Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), Samuel von Pufendorf (1632–1694), Richard Cumberland (1631–1718), and Jean Barbeyrac (1674–1744). In this post, I want to talk about another author that both Wilson and Hoffman relied on, one who exercised a broad influence on civic education in their time. That author is Thomas Rutherforth (1712-1771), the Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University and Archdeacon of Essex who wrote Institutes of Natural Law.

Thomas Rutherforth was born on October 3, 1712. Son of the rector of Papworth Everard (a village in Cambridgeshire, England), he was educated at Huntingdon School and later St. John’s College, Cambridge. There, in 1740, he completed a Bachelor of Divinity, the degree sought by aspiring leaders in the Anglican Church. While he had undergone extensive theological training, he also took serious interest in science, so much so that he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1742. He published scientific as well as church-related writings during his career.

Rutherforth went on to earn a Doctor of Divinity and in 1745 was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, a position that was created by Henry VIII in 1540 to anchor theological instruction in that university; it was in Rutherforth’s time – and it remains today – one of the most prestigious academic appointments in theology in the United Kingdom. Rutherforth supported the latitudinarianism that was dominant in Church leadership, a movement that began in the 17th century and that viewed differences in non-essential matters of belief with lenience. (Knudson, p. 312.) But at the same time, he supported the state’s right to require clergy to subscribe to the church’s formal statements of creed and practice (the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion). (See generally, Rutherforth, 1766.)

Among the many subjects that he studied, Rutherforth wrote several books and pamphlets about moral philosophy. His position emphasized God’s promise to reward the practice of virtue, an idea that some of his contemporaries, John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of Methodism, for example, believed contradicted the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith. (Rodell, pp. 1-78.) The British author and theologian Catherine Trotter Cockburn (1679-1749) took issue also with Rutherforth’s view that personal salvation can be a motive for virtue, a characterization that she found too transactional. (Broad, pp. 7-8.) Rutherforth presented this view most forcefully in An Essay on the Nature and Obligations of Virtue (Cambridge, 1744) arguing that practicing virtue is identical to self-interest because the actions that God has made man’s duty are also the actions that lead to human happiness, both on earth and in the afterlife.

Rutherforth continued working through his thoughts on moral obligations in his most important piece of writing on the law of nature, a book titled Institutes of Natural Law: Being the Substance of a Course of Lectures on Grotius De Jure Belli et Pacis, the first volume of which was published in London in 1754. In that book, Rutherforth presented, in a straightforward and relatively systematic way, summaries of some of the contents of Hugo Grotius’ classic on natural law and the law of nations, De Jure Belli et Pacis (On the Law of War and Peace).

The choice to comment on Grotius’ work was in some ways obvious. It was the most influential treatise on the law of nature in Europe; originally published in Latin in 1625, it had by Rutherforth’s time been printed many times, appearing in several dozen distinct editions in multiple languages, a number that expands significantly when all the variant imprints are considered. The work is credited with establishing the modern study of international law, but it had also become the launching point for most discussions of the law of nature in the Protestant world. (Tuck, pp. 78-79.) Natural law arguments had also become, by the middle of the 18th century, a staple of the liberal arts education in the leading universities in England and Scotland, a trend that also extended to the colonial colleges in North America; they were widely offered as a background theory for the moral training of young men at that time. (Knudson, p. 312.)

Rutherforth’s book was firmly in the vein of popularizing natural law theory. It stripped away a lot of the citations to Roman law and to Classical authors that weighed down Grotius’ text; it added a large amount of reasoned argumentation. Rutherforth also added his own thoughts to Grotius’ moral theory, including the prospect that the practice of virtue leads to individual happiness and eternal salvation. (e.g., Rutherforth, 1754, p. 11-14.) The first volume of Rutherforth’s work follows contents covered especially in the first two books of Grotius’ De Jure, discussions of the nature of law, especially the difference between natural law and positive law, the subjects of rights and obligations, of property and its acquisition, of rights that a man has in his own person, of rights of parenthood, of oaths, promises and contracts, and others. While Rutherforth’s first volume considers these topics from the point of view of natural law — those obligations that apply to people even when they are not part of any state or society — his second volume addresses the constitution of a state and its justification, the laws of a state, and the natural law conventions that govern the interaction of states.

The Institutes was well-received, especially in America. After the first edition of 1754/1756, the book was published again in 1779 (Cambridge, UK), in 1799 (Philadelphia), and then in 1832 (Baltimore). It was among the books that James Madison recommended for the use of Congress in 1783; it was mentioned by Luther Martin in the Constitutional Convention of 1787; Alexander Hamilton mentioned it in Federalist 84 and in his “Defense of the Funding System;” his book was cited by some of the giants of the field of law in the early Republic, including James Kent, Henry Wheaton and Joseph Story. (This list with its specific citations–and more–can be found here: McDowell, p. 60.)

As it happens, the Institutes relates to some of the questions that Jefferson raised in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. As for a person’s right to life, Rutherforth argues that while one has a right to his life, this only extends to the power to do what is consistent with his duty. “No man,” he writes, “can have a right to manage his own person, or to dispose of it in such a manner, as will render him incapable of doing his duty.” (Rutherforth, 1832, p. 78.) He explains further that as for his life and limbs, “as they were given him to use … they are not his to abuse or dispose of.”  (Rutherforth, 1832, p. 78.) Regarding personal liberty, Rutherforth holds that there is no such thing as a person who is a slave by nature. Human beings are by nature free. On the other hand, personal liberty, he writes, is alienable. One can sell oneself or one’s child into servitude (though not one’s neighbor, nor an enemy conquered in an unjust war), a state which he claims must be managed to respect the rights of both master and servant. (Rutherforth, 1832, pp. 238-245.) Rutherforth also acknowledges that natural law can justify acts of political resistance against tyrannical government, a notion critical to the Declaration. (Rutherforth, 1832, pp. 478-481.) The relation between subject and supreme governor, he writes, “is limited by the natural and revealed laws of God, by the laws of the national constitution, and by the ends of the union. [one] may, therefore, give them the name of governors, … likewise, give the people the name of subjects, even beyond these limitations, if he thinks proper, but still the former can only be called governors, and the latter can only be called subjects in words; for beyond these limitations the relation of governors and subjects ceases in right.” (Rutherford, 1832, p. 456.)

July 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Keep an eye out for more posts like this one that celebrate the Declaration, the lives of its signers, and the world in which they lived.

Secondary Sources:

• Broad, Jacqueline. “Stoicism in Catharine Trotter Cockburn’s Moral Philosophy,” Locke Studies vol. 2025 (2025), pp. 1-19.
• Gascoigne, J. (2004, September 23). Rutherforth, Thomas (1712–1771), moral philosopher. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 17 Jun. 2026, from https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/
• Haakonssen, Knud. Natural Law and Moral Philosophy: from Grotius to the Scottish Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA, 1996.
• McDowell, Gary L. “The Limits of Natural Law: Thomas Rutherforth and the American Legal Tradition.” The American Journal of Jurisprudence 37, no. 1 (1992): pp. 57-81.
• Rodell, Jonathan. The rise of Methodism: a study of Bedfordshire, 1736-1851. Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2014.
• Trotter, Catharine. The works of Mrs. Catharine Cockburn. Routledge/Thoemmes Press, London, 1992.
• Rutherforth, Thomas. A Vindication of the Right of Protestant Churches to require the Clergy to Subscribe to an Established Confession of Faith and Doctrines, in a Charge Delivered at a Visitation in July 1766. Cambridge: printed by J. Bentham, printer to the University; for Messrs Thurlbourn and Woodyer in Cambridge; and sold by J. Beecroft, and Messrs Robinson and Roberts, C. Bathurst, and T. Cadell, London, 1766.
• Tuck, Richard. The Rights of War and Peace: Political Thought and the International Order from Grotius to Kant. New York; Oxford University Press, Oxford [England], 1999.

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Source: US Global Legal Monitor

The following is a guest post by Emily Mizokami, a former intern with the Digital Resources Division of the Law Library of Congress. She is in her second year of the Master of Library and Information Science program at San Jose State University and works as a fellow at the California State Railroad Museum.

In honor of the recent Juneteenth holiday, the Law Library of Congress would like to highlight one of our collections and its new name. The Slavery and the Judiciary collection provides digital access to more than one hundred books and manuscripts documenting issues related to slavery and the courts from 1740 to 1860. This collection includes trial transcripts, legal reports, and interpretations of notable court cases. The curation of the collection was inspired by Paul Finkelman’s 1985 publication, Slavery in the Courtroom: an Annotated Bibliography of American Cases. From the main page of the collection, visitors can also explore related resources across other divisions of the Library, like the web archive of the African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909 and selected collection highlights featured on various Library channels.

The Slavery and the Judiciary, 1740 to 1860 collection offers over 8,700 pages of digitized material from the Law Library and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, spanning a 120-year history. In digitizing these materials, we at the Law Library hope that this collections helps to bring new perspectives on important moments in civil rights legislative history to light.

For more

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Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

This is the second installment of a two-part guest post by Theanne Liu Svedman, a former fellow with the Law Library of Congress. You can read part one here: A Deep Dive into Library Resources on Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp. Pt. 1.

Outside of the Law Library’s collections, the Library’s Manuscript Division also holds materials related to this case and other Supreme Court cases, namely the collections of many U.S. Supreme Court justices. Because the Phillips opinion and concurrence are relatively short, I was interested in learning whether documents in the Manuscript Division would reveal any additional information about the justices’ rationales.

Thurgood Marshall Papers

Because the Phillips decision was issued per curiam, I wanted to first review Justice Marshall’s papers to get any insight about the drafting of his concurrence. The most relevant file in Justice Marshall’s papers was located in Box 68, which contained the opinions of the October 1970 term. This file revealed that the Chief Justice drafted the Court’s opinion. In one draft opinion circulated among the justices, Justice Marshall marks up the paragraphs about the bona fide occupational qualification:

The folder also contains what appears to be a final draft of Justice Marshall’s concurrence, revised only slightly in the final U.S. Reports opinion for stylistic consistency, with changes such as “preschool” to “pre-school” in the final publication.

Another interesting record in the Marshall papers is correspondence from Justice Blackmun to Chief Justice Burger and other justices, specifically discussing the bona fide qualification occupation exception in 703(e):

The case has a somewhat peculiar posture for me. The exception which is embraced in § 703 of the Act is phrased in positive terms and provides for justified discriminatory qualification, e.g., in a proper case, sex. Yet, in a sense, what we are concerned with here is a negative, that is, a justified discriminatory disqualification, namely, motherhood for a time. I realize that qualifying one defined group has the same end result as disqualifying the oppositely defined group. Superficially, however, and at first glance, and because so much depends on the accuracy of the definitions, the two seem to exude different odors.

What this nit-picking on my part comes down to is that I feel the less we say by way of explanation, the better. . . .

Harry A. Blackmun Papers

I was intrigued by this memo from Justice Blackmun, so I wanted to research his thinking further. Justice Blackmun’s papers are also in the Manuscript Division’s collections and contain a folder for the Phillips case. Justice Blackmun’s papers include typed and handwritten notes and thoughts about the case, notes from the oral argument, per curiam opinion drafts, and his correspondence about the bona fide occupational qualification that was found in Justice Marshall’s papers.

In this document, Justice Blackmun has typed out questions he had about the Phillips case, dated December 7, 1970, which was two days before oral argument on December 9, 1970. It is unclear if these are questions he intended to ask the parties during oral argument, or just questions he wanted to consider in the case for his own purposes.

This next document is a December 7, 1970, memorandum written by Justice Blackmun discussing his thoughts on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision, specifically his skepticism of the “sex plus” rationale and “preference” for the case to be decided on the bona fide occupational qualification exception. He states that his inclination at this point in the case is to affirm the Fifth Circuit’s decision based on the large number of women that Martin Marietta employed, that the policy not to employ mothers of pre-school-aged children was not based on sex, and even if it was based on sex, there was some rationality behind the policy.

As Justice Blackmun later joined the per curiam opinion reversing the Fifth Circuit, we know that he ultimately changed his mind. His notes following the December 9, 1970, oral argument show that on December 11, all the justices agreed the lower court was wrong, and on December 18, the Chief Justice proposed a per curiam opinion.

My review of the papers of Justice Marshall and Blackmun in the Manuscript Division collections was incredibly interesting and provided further context on how the Court grappled with the enforcement of Title VII in its first few years and its interpretation of the text of the law and considerations of what limited exceptions should apply. It also taught me how interdisciplinary researching Supreme Court cases can be, and made me appreciate the variety of resources we have at the Library of Congress.

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Source: US Global Legal Monitor

This is the first installment of a two-part guest post by Theanne Liu Svedman, a former fellow with the Law Library of Congress.

From January to May of this year I worked at the Law Library’s Public Services Division as the George A. Strait Fellow, while I am completing my MLIS in law librarianship at the University of Washington iSchool. During my fellowship, I worked on answering Ask a Librarian questions from public and congressional patrons, shadowed librarians at the reference desk, reviewed and updated Employment & Labor Law: A Beginner’s Guide, and assessed one of the Law Library’s state collections.

Before transitioning to law librarianship, I was an attorney who represented workers in class action cases, primarily challenging wage-and-hour violations and employment discrimination. I also had the privilege of caring for my now toddler daughter full-time before beginning library school. When I was given the opportunity to research a landmark Supreme Court case using the Law Library’s collections and Manuscript Division collections, I was eager to look into Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp., 400 U.S. 542 (1971) because of my experience with both employment law and motherhood, both of which this case addresses.

Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp., 400 U.S. 542 (1971):

Petitioner Ida Phillips, a mother of seven children, sued Martin Marietta Corp. (Martin Marietta) in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for sex discrimination after the company told her they would not accept job applications for an assembly trainee position from women with pre-school age children. The business did, however, employ men with pre-school-age children. The district court granted summary judgment for Martin Marietta, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed that decision and then denied a rehearing en banc. The Fifth Circuit’s rationale was that Martin Marietta showed that 75% of its workforce in the assembly trainee position were women, and that discrimination against a person on the basis of their sex plus another characteristic, such as being a mother with pre-school aged children, did not violate Title VII. Ida Phillips successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to grant a writ of certiorari to hear her case, making her case the first Title VII gender discrimination case to reach the Court.

On January 25, 1971, the Court issued a short per curiam opinion stating:

Section 703 (a) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires, that persons of like qualifications be given employment opportunities irrespective of their sex. The Court of Appeals therefore erred in reading this section as permitting one hiring policy for women and another for men-each having pre-school-age children. The existence of such conflicting family obligations, if demonstrably more relevant to job performance for a woman than for a man, could arguably be a basis for distinction under § 703(e) of the Act. But that is a matter of evidence tending to show that the condition in question “is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise.” The record before us, however, is not adequate for resolution of these important issues. . . . Summary judgment was therefore improper and we remand for fuller development of the record and for further consideration. Vacated and remanded.

Significantly, the Court disposed of the developing line of decisions that allowed employers to discriminate on the basis of sex plus other factors, which many argued would have made Title VII practically ineffective. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge John R. Brown had dissented from the Fifth Circuit’s denial of the rehearing of the case, stating that “if ‘sex plus’ stands, the [Civil Rights] Act is dead.” 416 F.2d 1257, 1260 (5th Cir. 1969).

A Bona Fide Occupational Qualification Exception for Motherhood?

The Supreme Court also mentioned the exception listed in section 703(e) of the act, which provides that the law is not triggered when “a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise” exists. The Supreme Court allowed the lower court on remand to consider evidence about whether women’s family obligations were qualifications “reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise.”

Justice Marshall took issue with the Court’s discussion about the bona fide occupational qualification and issued a separate concurrence, excerpted below:

While I agree that this case must be remanded for a full development of the facts, I cannot agree with the Court’s indication that a ‘bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of’ Martin Marietta’s business could be established by a showing that some women, even the vast majority, with pre-school-age children have family responsibilities that interfere with job performance and that men do not usually have such responsibilities. Certainly, an employer can require that all of his employees, both men and women, meet minimum performance standards, and he can try to insure compliance by requiring parents, both mothers and fathers, to provide for the care of their children so that job performance is not interfered with. But the Court suggests that it would not require such uniform standards. I fear that in this case, where the issue is not squarely before us, the Court has fallen into the trap of assuming that the Act permits ancient canards about the proper role of women to be a basis for dis-crimination. Congress, however, sought just the opposite result.

Justice Marshall then discussed that the inclusion of sex discrimination in the Civil Rights Act was intended to prevent employers from refusing to hire workers based on sex stereotypes, and that the exception for a “‘bona fide occupational qualification’ was not intended to swallow the rule.” Justice Marshall cited regulations issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces Title VII. The EEOC interpreted the bona fide occupational qualification “to be applicable only to job situations that requires specific physical characteristics necessarily possessed by only one sex. Thus, the exception would apply where necessary ‘for the purpose of authenticity or genuineness’ in the employment of actors or actresses, fashion models, and the like.” Phillips, 400 U.S. at 545-47 (Marshall, J., concurring).

Justice Marshall’s argument in his concurrence has largely prevailed, as there is no recognized bona fide occupational qualification exception to deny mothers employment based on those “ancient canards about the proper role of women.”

In part 2 of this blog post, I will be exploring the Manuscript Division’s collections to see what records in the Supreme Court Justices’ papers might say about the Court’s decision-making process in this case.

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Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

Last month, we celebrated 10 years of the remote metadata internship. We continue to have wonderful groups of interns and volunteers every semester in the remote metadata program, and we are excited to share a little bit more about these amazing interns from the years past. Today’s blog post has some of our amazing interns from the 2024-2025 academic year. They worked on metadata projects remotely, making our collections more easily accessible and findable with the addition of metadata and transcriptions. The mini biographies below are self-reported from when they were working with us, so they may be a little out of date, and we wish them the best as they continue on in their professional careers.

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Isaac Albright lives in Sierra Vista, Arizona, and works for his local public library as a circulation assistant. He earned his bachelor’s degree in government and public service from the University of Arizona. He is currently enrolled in Emporia State University’s School of Library and Information Science and is nearing completion of his master’s degree. In his free time, he enjoys playing and running games of Dungeons and Dragons as well as playing the latest role-playing game released.

Erah Arzate is from the city of Carson, California, in the county of Los Angeles. A recent graduate from San José State University with a master’s degree in library and information science (M.L.I.S.), Erah also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from California State University, Dominguez Hills. During free time, Erah enjoys listening to audiobooks and researching special interests.

Ayann’ah Batiste is from Texas and a graduate of the University of Houston–Downtown, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in religious studies. She is currently a grant writer fellow with the African Americans on the Move Book Club, exploring various non-profits that promote arts and culture. Her research internship at Arte Público Press allowed her to gain experience in metadata through database research, image correction, and metadata processing, inspiring her to volunteer as a metadata intern with the Law Library of Congress. In her spare time, Ayann’ah enjoys reading, writing, and baking.

Alina Baumgart recently graduated from San José State University with an M.L.I.S., focusing on archives and public libraries. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in German and a certificate in copy editing. Her interests include preservation of physical and digital materials, cataloging, and accessibility. In her free time, she enjoys reading, drawing, and studying foreign languages.

Yarrow Bedford holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature and graduated with her M.L.I.S. from San José State University in December, 2024. She specializes in research methods and information architecture and is interested in data management. She has a professional background in social media marketing, customer service, and teaching yoga, and currently works as a public services assistant for the Whatcom County Library System. In her free time, Yarrow enjoys cycling, caring for her houseplants, reading, and making jewelry.

Garvey Blackwell is studying to pursue her career as a librarian. She is finishing her senior year at the University of Maine at Augusta, getting her Bachelor of Science degree in information and library science. She currently has her grant writing certificate and a library services certificate. After completing her degree, she will continue her higher education by obtaining her master’s degree in library and information science and a master’s level archival studies certificate. In her spare time, she works at an academic library, watches movies, participates in numerous boards and organizations, and volunteers. She has over 8,000 hours of volunteering in her local community and worldwide. She enjoys serving others and is looking forward to more opportunities in the future, including her upcoming collection development internship with the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records.

Peggy Geoghan Braly lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She has an M.S.L.S. from the Catholic University of America. She has worked in various types of libraries, including special and federal, and has worked with business, legislative, and archival material in the past. Her hobbies are travelling, yoga, and belly dancing.

Kayla Coffee-Prose is an M.L.S. student specializing in law librarianship at the University of North Texas. She has lived in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area for the last decade, but she and her family are preparing to move to Duluth, Minnesota. Before beginning work as a librarian, Kayla earned a B.A. in French from the University of Texas, which she followed with a year teaching high school English in the French village of Thizy. She also has an M.Div. from Brite Divinity School at TCU and serves as the pastor at St. Paul’s UCC in Dallas.

Maria Crenshaw is currently a 2L at Saint Louis University School of Law. She is interested in using her background in journalism and digital media to develop creative projects that showcase the law and how it has changed throughout history. When Maria is not studying, she enjoys reading, road trips, photography, and hiking with her dog.

Amanda Davidson lives in Denver, Colorado, but is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She currently works as the digital archives assistant at Regis University and is in the final year of her M.L.I.S. from San José State University. Amanda also holds a B.S. in psychology from the University of New Mexico. She is passionate about digital access in libraries and archives, and the ways in which these institutions can be catalysts for social change. When she is not working or studying, Amanda enjoys spending time with her husband and their beloved cat Louise, reading, knitting, (badly) playing tennis, and shamelessly watching reality television.

Yasmin Elgamel was born in Egypt. She holds a LL.B. from Mansoura University Law School in Egypt. Later, she moved to the United States and became a U.S. citizen. She continued her educational journey by earning a B.S. in microbiology from Michigan State University (MSU) and a graduate certificate in data science from Indiana University Bloomington. She became a microbiology research volunteer at MSU, where she worked on gene regulation and expression for nearly four years. She also volunteered as a nutritionist at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan. Yasmin enjoys traveling with her family, cooking, walking, and shopping with her family and friends.

Margaret Ennen is a recent graduate of the University of Virginia, where she majored in English. She is passionate about reading, writing, and editing, and she is also currently an intern with Princeton University Press. During her free time, she enjoys baking, crocheting, embroidery, puzzles, and spending time with her family, friends, and dog. She is excited for the opportunity to help improve access to the Library of Congress’s resources while refining her proofreading, data entry, and organizational skills.

Amanda Espinoza lives in Northern California, where she attends San José State University as an M.L.I.S. student and works as a student team lead at the California State Library. Upon graduation, Amanda hopes to find a librarian role in a government or law library. In her free time, she loves to spend time with her husband, two sons, and two Australian shepherds.

Keiko Hilmo is a graduate student at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa seeking a master’s degree in Korean for professionals. During her first year of graduate school, Keiko worked as a student assistant for the Asia collection at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa library, and through this experience, she became interested in delving more into library work. Outside of classes and work, Keiko can often be found running, lifting, watching Korean dramas, and spending time with her cat.

Mila Hill is an undergraduate at Howard University studying English, classics, and Latin. She hails from Hampton, Virginia, and has lived in Hartford, Connecticut; Wallingford, Connecticut; and Washington, D.C. She was a 2024 Office of Communications Junior Fellow at the Library of Congress and studied Ancient Greek at Harvard University. Following her 2025 graduation, she plans to earn her master’s degree in library sciences. Mila is an avid reader, dog lover, and slightly optimistic Mets fan.

Mary Hogan is a returning intern from the past spring and summer. She holds an M.P.A. from Westfield State University, an M.S.L.I.S. from Simmons University, and a B.A. in political science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Most of her career has been in the government and nonprofit sectors, often in roles that, while not always within a library, still required a library degree. Her volunteer work included traveling to Kenya to provide technical assistance to librarians through the Connecticut-based nonprofit American Friends of Kenya.

Michelle Hurt grew up and currently resides in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas, although she was born in the Philippines and is 95% fluent in Tagalog. She received her B.A. in political science from the University of North Texas and will graduate with her M.S. in information science from the same school in Fall 2025. Michelle previously worked in academia, but she now supports the work towards a just and equitable energy transition at an international environmental non-governmental organization (NGO). Michelle loves spending time with her husband and two sons, reading the latest novel by Gregg Hurwitz, running in cooler weather, and cooking fancy recipes (while still making them palatable for her children).

Veronica Johnson was born and raised in Southern California. She has a B.A. in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and recently received her M.L.I.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she specialized in rare books/print and visual culture. Veronica’s main hobbies include sewing, writing, baking, and obsessing over film. In her free time, she loves visiting museums, exploring cities, and entertaining her cats.

Jennifer LeClerc lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, with her husband, two children, and two cats. She is pursuing an M.L.I.S. from Indiana University (IU) and is specializing in digital curation. She previously earned a B.S. in psychology with a minor in neuroscience from IU East, where she became passionate about minimizing the spread of misinformation. Nostalgic by nature, she is also deeply interested in web archiving and early 2000s internet culture. In library school, she has gained a newfound fascination with linked data and is excited to contribute to the future of a semantic web. She is a strong advocate not just for equal access to information, but for presenting it in an easily understood way. She enjoys reading, coloring, and gaming, and is an avid Nancy Drew fan!

Erin McCusker is a public relations professional and a Master of Library and Information Science student at the University of South Florida. Previously, she interned at Rollins College Olin Library in Winter Park, Florida, and volunteered at the Orlando Public Library. In high school, Erin volunteered at the Delray Beach Public Library and was president and head of book discussions for the Delray Beach Library’s Teen Advisory Board. She gave a virtual poster presentation on university AI policies and library resources at the 2024 Florida Association of College and Research Libraries Annual Conference.

Casey McKenna resides in the coastal town of Norwalk, Connecticut. She holds a B.A. in English from Saint Leo University in Florida and recently earned her master’s degree in library and information science, along with a certificate of advanced study in information security management, from Syracuse University. Outside of her professional pursuits, Casey is passionate about wildlife photography, reading, and hiking, embracing the beauty of nature with every adventure.

Kieran Micari-Lawless is a graduate of Bishop’s University in Quebec, Canada, with a B.A. in history and global studies. Originally from the Chicago suburbs, Kieran is pursuing a career in archival and museum work and is particularly interested in the field of queer history. He is passionate about making history more accessible to the public and encouraging people to consider the relevance of history in their own lives. In his free time, Kieran is an avid audiobook listener, cook, and frequent collector of garden gnomes.

Susan Minchew is a graduate student at Texas Woman’s University, pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science. She earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and, after years of working in higher education, decided to become a librarian. Her coursework has led her to become most interested in technical and organizational aspects of librarianship, like cataloging and metadata. Being a Navy brat, Susan grew up all over the world and has a passion for travel, culture, and the inclusion of all people. When she is not studying and working, she spends time with her husband and two kids in Houston, Texas, though her dream is to live in the Pacific Northwest again someday. Susan loves to read, quilt, paint, play board games, and bake, and she would love to become fluent in another language.

Jewel Navia resides in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from California State University, Los Angeles, back in 2022 with a degree in political science. He served as a remote metadata intern, in which he crafted HTML code and transcribed bills to make them accessible in Congress.gov. In his free time, he likes to write in his journal, draw, and read historical nonfiction.

Ashten Newcomer is a lifelong Louisiana resident and is finishing her M.S.L.S. at the University of Kentucky. While working as a remote metadata intern for the Law Library, she also works for her local public library as a full-time reference and young adult associate. Ashten’s professional interests include metadata, special collections, and cataloging. In her free time, she enjoys reading, crocheting, and watching Downton Abbey.

Scott Osborn lives in Marietta, Georgia, just north of Atlanta, and has just completed nearly 30 years as a journalist working with a talented group of editors and producers chronicling the first draft of history of the 21st century. He was able to simultaneously earn an MLIS degree from Valdosta State University during the last couple of years of work. He has an abiding interest in historical documents, military history, and genealogy, and is enjoying this experience with the Library of Congress.

Diana Paglia lives in Georgia with her husband, two cats, and beloved dog. She graduated with a master’s degree in archives and preservation from Rutgers University and has her B.A. in literature from Stockton University. She has a passion for all things technical and accessible, believing everyone should have a means to get the information they need. If she is not snuggled up with a book, you can find her learning to code or volunteering at a local archive.

Robert Rhinehart is a dual-degree student at New York University and Long Island University, pursuing an M.A. in costume studies and an M.S. in library and information science, respectively. He earned a B.A. in classical archaeology and religious studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in his home state. In his free time, Robert enjoys watching new movies, weightlifting, and spending time with friends.

Cristina Romero is a first-year graduate student in the M.S.L.I.S. program at Chicago State University. She received her B.A. in psychology from California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. Cristina is an aspiring academic librarian with interests in research and advancing technological strategies in libraries. She enjoys acrylic painting, walking in nature with her daughters, and napping with her dog.

Genevieve Smiley is currently pursuing her B.S. in economics at Bowling Green State University. She hopes to pursue a J.D. post-graduation. In her free time, she enjoys collecting vinyls, going to coffee shops, and reading.

Abigail Starcher is a recent graduate of the University of South Florida, where she earned her degree in library and information science. She is originally from New Jersey but currently resides in Florida, where she runs public services at a law library. Before working in libraries, she taught third grade on the Zuni Pueblo Reservation. Abigail’s main interests include emerging library technology, historical research, and the digitization, preservation, and transcription of historical documents. She also enjoys painting with Bob Ross tutorials, cooking Croatian dishes, and singing the major choral works of Bach, Palestrina, Mozart, and Brahms.

Pam Sun has previously volunteered for the Law Library of Congress metadata program. Her background is in data and policy analysis, and she is interested in collaborative digital projects on a wide range of topics. She holds a Bachelor of Science and a master’s degree in public health and data analytics. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and exploring the outdoors.

Jessica Thelen has a Ph.D. in English and a graduate certificate in museum studies from the University of Delaware (UD). Her research interests are post-1945 American literature, the intersections of memory and trauma, and Japanese incarceration. She is interested in archival work and has done this with the Delaware Historical Society Research Library and UD’s Special Collections: Archival Processing unit during her graduate studies. She is committed to making “difficult histories” accessible to the public.

Lisa VanAusdall is a lifelong Midwesterner who now lives and works in D.C. She holds an M.A. in arts education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and B.A. degrees in psychology and art from William Jewell College, where she also minored in art history. She has over a decade of experience in nonprofit administration, primarily in the arts and humanities. In her free time, she pursues artmaking, birdwatching, and reading three books at a time.

Ella Young is from North Carolina and recently graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a B.S. in information science. As a student, she gained library experience as an intern at Duke. She is currently applying to library science master’s programs and is interested in archives and academic librarianship. In her free time, she enjoys running, reading, hiking, and coloring.

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Source: US Global Legal Monitor

This is a guest post by Katherine Palazzolo, a legal reference librarian at the Law Library of Congress. She previously authored Research Guides in Focus – Consumer Protection Law: A Beginner’s Guide.

On flag day, we celebrate the day in 1777 that the Second Continental Congress adopted the flag of the United States. Just as our nation has an official flag design, so too do our states! In celebration of Flag Day, we are highlighting several states that have recently changed, or considered changing, their official state flags.

Utah

In 2021, the Utah State Legislature passed legislation, S.B. 48, establishing a State Flag Task Force and setting a process for members of the public to submit designs for a new Utah state flag.  More than 7,000 Utah residents submitted 5,702 designs for the new Utah state flag. These designs were then reviewed by a Design Review Subcommittee who identified submissions with shared features, like symbols and colors. Professional designers used these designs to create 20 flags that were displayed throughout Utah. After Utahns had an opportunity to view the designs and share their opinions, the Design Review Subcommittee chose 5 flags to refer to the State Flag Task Force. The State Flag Task Force then chose a flag to recommend to the Utah Legislature. The Utah State Legislature made the new design the official state flag with S.B. 31, which was signed into law on March 21, 2023 by the Governor Cox. More information about Utah’s flag is available at flag.utah.gov.

You can learn more about Utah state government in the Law Library of Congress’ Guide to Law Online for Utah. Our Guides to Law Online are annotated collections of links to free online legal materials and pertinent resources in the Library of Congress catalog, organized by jurisdiction.

Minnesota

Similarly, in 2023, the Minnesota Legislature passed legislation, HF 1830, establishing a State Emblems Redesign Commission to design a new state flag.

The commission reviewed the more than 2,600 designs submitted by the public and chose six flags as finalists. From these finalists the commission chose three designs as the basis for the new Minnesota state flag. On December 19, 2023, the commission chose the final design. This new flag design was submitted on December 29, 2023, to the Minnesota Legislature and governor as part of a final report. Three members of the commission submitted a minority report. The new flag was adopted as the official state flag of Minnesota on May 11, 2024. More information about Minnesota’s flag is available on the Minnesota Secretary of State website.

You can learn more about Minnesota state government in the Law Library of Congress’ Guide to Law Online for Minnesota.

Maine

Another state that has recently considered changing its flag is Maine.

In 2023, the state legislature had passed LD 86 titled “An Act to Restore the Former State of Maine Flag,” setting out the design of the prosed flag. The law, enacted January 7, 2024, without the governor’s signature, required that the proposed flag go before Mainers in a referendum to be held the following November, when Maine voters would be asked to accept or reject the Act. On November 5, 2024, voters rejected the Act.

More information about the Maine State Flag can be found on the Maine Secretary of State website and in the Maine Revised Statutes at 1 MRS §206.

You can learn more about Maine state government in the Law Library of Congress’ Guide to Law Online for Maine.

Massachusetts

Massachusetts is currently considering a new flag design.

In 2024, its state legislature passed H. 4800 establishing  the Massachusetts Seal, Flag, and Motto Advisory Commission. The Commission is tasked with proposing a new flag for the commonwealth. More than 700 new flag designs were submitted to the commission in 2025. After reviewing the submissions, the commission chose 48 flags for a second round of scoring, of which it has selected three flags. This fall, the Advisory Commission will share its selection of three flag designs with members of the public for review and comment.

You can learn more about Massachusetts state government in the Law Library of Congress’ Guide to Law Online for Massachusetts.

Learn more about flag day through our prior posts on Flag Day and the Flag Code in 2012, and State Flags on Display – Pic of the Week in 2020.

Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

An Orientation to Legal Research: U.S. Federal Statutes

Date: Thursday, July 9, 2026, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT

Content: The Orientation to Legal Research Series provides a basic introduction to legal sources and research techniques. These orientations, taught by legal reference librarians, are typically offered once a month on a rotating basis. This entry in the series provides an overview of U.S. statutory and legislative research, including information about how to find and use the U.S. Code, the U.S. Statutes at Large, and U.S. federal bills and resolutions.

Instructor: Barbara Bavis. Barbara is the bibliographic and research instruction librarian at the Law Library. She holds a B.A. in history from Duke University, a J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law, and a Master of Science in library and information science, specializing in law librarianship from Catholic University.

Please register to join the Orientation to Legal Research webinar. 

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Orientation to Law Library Collections featuring the Supreme Court of Ohio Law Library

Date: Thursday, July 23, 2026, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT

Content: The Orientation to Law Library Collections (OLLC) Webinar is designed for patrons familiar with legal research who would like an introduction to the Law Library of Congress’s collections and services. The purpose of the State Law Libraries Outreach Project is to strengthen the ties between the Law Library of Congress and state law libraries by sharing information about our collections, products, and services with one another and with the public. This project involves providing a guest spot for state law librarians, or their designees, to discuss the collections and services they offer during our OLLC webinars.

Instructor: Sarah Friedman. Sarah Friedman is a legal reference librarian at the Law Library of Congress. Sarah holds a B.A. in English literature and criticism from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law.

Please register to join the Orientation to Law Library Collections webinar.

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To learn about other upcoming classes on domestic and foreign law topics, visit the Legal Research Institute. Please request ADA accommodations at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or [email protected].

Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

For those who enjoyed the From the Serial Set series, welcome back! Today’s post is a crossover between two of Visual Information Specialist Bailey’s favorite things – exploring nature across the country and understanding how the law interacts with it.

The Matanuska Glacier, located in the Matanuska Valley of Alaska, is a 27-mile-long formation sprawling from the foot of the Chugach Mountains. Glaciers, which originally form on land and slowly succumb to gravity over time, are types of rocks that form in areas with both regular snowfall accumulation and temperatures consistently around freezing. Among the many glaciers in Alaska, the Matanuska Glacier is visible from the roadway.

Beginning in 1879, the U.S. Geological Survey was established to conduct surveys of public lands and analyze the geologic structure, including minerals and other resources (20 Stat. 377).

You can find historic bulletins of the U.S. Geological Survey in the United States Congressional Serial Set. The Matanuska Valley is mentioned as early as 1899, when the climate, natural resources, and topography were mapped the year prior. Submitted as a part of the Director’s annual report to Congress in 1899, A Reconnaissance from Resurrection Bay to the Tanana River, Alaska maps a route that passes the glacier.

A 1907 report surveying the Matanuska and Talkeetna Regions of Alaska mentions multiple glaciers, including Matanuska, from a 1906 survey expedition.

“[T]he largest glacier of the valley is the Matanuska Glacier with a frontage of 3 at the heads of the canyons which furrow the southern valley wall, but largest glacier of the valley is the Matanuska Glacier with a frontage of miles along the river. The course of this stream can be traced from the top of Glacier Point for 25 or 30 miles to the southeast. Its source here is probably the névé which follows the crest of the Chugach Range to the east, and gives rise to the various glaciers which flow down to Prince William Sound on the south and to the Tazlina and Klutina rivers on the north.” U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin No. 327, p. 34.

“The exact mode of origin of Matanuska Valley can not [sic] yet be regarded as established,” wrote Sidney Paige and Adolph Knopf, the surveying geologists. In a 1964 bulletin, Arthur Grantz determined that the glacier itself was primarily responsible for carving out the valley.

“Evidence is plentiful that the glaciers are rapidly retreating,” wrote Paige and Knopf in 1907, observing the fragmenting of smaller glaciers from the main formation. The National Park Service continues to observe the same today. The U.S. Geological Survey continues to monitor the changing landscape of glaciers in select parts of the country, as well as several more in Alaska. As recently as 2008, the Matanuska Glacier was an important part of the Survey’s hydrology studies.

Below are other bulletins and resources I encountered during my research process. While not explicitly mentioning the Matanuska Glacier, they give terrific insight into other parts of the Alaskan terrain.

It isn ot always expected that legislative history and the natural world overlap, but the Serial Set remains one of the many collections in the Law Library that can help us understand a new perspective of our world. We hope that this has sparked your curiosity about the fascinating landforms known as glaciers and the other wonders the Serial Set holds.

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Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

In the last release, we added enhanced access to House Roll Call Votes from the 116th Congress, along with a new Browse page for Concurrent Resolutions Agreed to by House and Senate.

In the latest release, enrolled bills can now be displayed with USLM text. Enhanced access to House roll call vote data is now available for the 115th Congress (2017-2019). For advanced researchers, there is now a field value list available for Title Types that can be used in the Command Line Search.

Enhancements

The enhancements to Congress.gov in this release include:

Enhancement – House Roll Call Votes – 115th Congress

Enhancement – Legislation – Search

Enhancement – Legislation – Enrolled Bill Text

• Enrolled bill text tab displays USLM text by default when available.

Congress.gov Tip

Do you want to learn more about Congress.gov and its collections? Explore the Help Center on Congress.gov.

Most-Viewed Bills

Below are the most-viewed bills for the week of May 31, 2026.

1.	H.R.4818 [118th]	Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2023
2.	H.R.1761 [119th]	Donald J. Trump $250 Bill Act
3.	H.R.3633 [119th]	Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025
4.	H.R.1 [119th]	An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14.
5.	H.R.8800 [119th]	National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027
6.	H.R.22 [119th]	SAVE Act
7.	H.R.2616 [119th]	Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act
8.	S.3516 [118th]	A bill to impose a fee on certain remittance transfers to fund border security.
9.	H.R.8870 [119th]	BUILD America 250 Act
10.	H.R.5269 [119th]	RESULTS Act

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Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

On April 29, 2026, parliamentary members belonging to the Swedish Democrats party violated the Swedish parliamentary offset system to pass legislation on citizenship. This was done to ensure that there would be no transitory rules for those who currently have applied for or are currently eligible to apply for citizenship but who will no longer be eligible when the new law takes effect on June 6, 2026.

But what is the offset system (kvittningssystem)?

The Swedish kvittningssytem is an agreement between the political parties meant to ensure that the balance/ratio of the Swedish parliament is maintained, including when members are ineligible to vote due to temporary illness or travel. In short, it means that one member from one party voluntarily sits out when a member of another party is unavailable.

When was the offset system introduced?

The system was introduced in the early 1900s when the Swedish parliament was a bicameral body, and there were only two parties in the upper chamber (första kammaren) and three parties in the lower chamber (andra kammaren).

Today, the unicameral Swedish parliament is made up of eight parties, and the current government includes members from three parties with the support of a “silent” fourth party through a collaboration agreement known as the Tidöavtalet. The government parties are the Moderates, the Christian Democrats, and the Liberals. The silent support party is the Swedish Democrats.

How do unaffiliated members affect the offset system?

While there is a small majority for the Tidö-parties (176 to 173), several unaffiliated members, known as savages (vildar), are complicating the math. An unaffiliated member is a member of the parliament who, at the start of a four-year parliamentary term, was a member of one of the eight parties but has since then broken with their party and become an unaffiliated member. While members who leave their parties cannot be removed, they may resign, but typically do not. Instead, their seats are protected until the next election, when they are automatically tossed out as their term is up, and they are unlikely to make it onto any party list. Sweden is famous for having a history of members voting with their party in all matters, this is known colloquially as following the party whip (partipiskan). For example, during the parliamentary term of 2010-2014, members only voted against party lines nine times, and several times were by accident, by pressing the wrong button. Members of parliament are not legally required to vote with their party, but members who do not adhere to the party line risk being tossed out of the party. Unaffiliated members have historically expressed a political schism with their party as the reason for voluntarily leaving or being asked to leave the party.

Never before have so many members been unaffiliated. In total, nine members of the 349-member parliament are unaffiliated after having left their parties. Among the current savages, three members have left the Left Party, three members have left the Swedish Democrats, two members have left the Moderates, and one member has left the Social Democrats.

What does this have to do with the offset system, you ask? Well, each member party has a number of members that represent the total votes they received in the election, but if their members leave, there is no recalibration of the votes; the number of votes the party has will be reduced. Normally, that does not matter unless the vote is very close, as it was on April 26. This is because parties have designated specific members (kvittningspersoner) who should sit out a vote, and they cannot include their non-affiliated members.

What happened on April 29, 2026?

Several members of the Swedish parliament were missing both from the opposition and from the majority parties during the citizenship vote on April 29, 2026. In total, 10 members from the Swedish Democrats were supposed to sit out, offsetting 10 members on the other side. And in most of the eight votes on citizenship, they did. But two of the former members of the Swedish Democrats were interviewed and revealed that they would vote against the Swedish Democrats, and instead vote with the opposition, in a vote on transitory rules for citizenship. Unwilling to face a loss on one of its key issues, the SD majority leader broke the gentlemen’s agreement and told two benched members to vote, resulting in a 147 to 146 win for the majority.

While technically not illegal, it did violate the process that has been in place since the early 1900s in order to ensure that the member vote ratio is preserved.

As a result of SD’s actions, the system is considered to have “collapsed,” and several members who would normally be sitting votes out have been showing up to vote, including a Social Democrat who recently had lung surgery.

Does the offset system deal with long-term absences?

No, during long-term absences, such as maternity leave or long-term sick leave, an alternate for the member of parliament is assigned, and that person votes on behalf of the member of parliament. (5 ch. 3 § Riksdagsordning (SFS 2014:801).) The offset system is meant to deal with short-term issues.

Will the Offset System Be Reformed?

The offset system is not automatic; parties must agree to follow the principles, and for a long time, the Swedish Democrats were not invited to join. In fact, the Swedish Democrats were not invited to join until 2021, 11 years after they entered the Swedish Parliament, because other parties did not find them trustworthy. Following the SD actions on April 29, many members have called for a reinstatement of the offset system, just without the participation of the Swedish Democrats. The Swedish Democrats, in turn, have called for including the savages in the offset system.

So far, no solution has been reached, although one member of the Swedish Democrats has published an OP-ed apologizing for his party’s actions.

 Additional Law Library of Congress Online Resources Related to the Swedish Parliament

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