Please join us on June 25, 2026, at 2:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) for our next foreign, comparative, and international law webinar titled “Regulation of Internet Shutdowns in India and Pakistan.”
This webinar aims to examine, in a comparative format, how India and Pakistan regulate government actions to shut down the internet. The session will explore the historical development of shutdowns, their various forms, and the rationales and justifications for their use; the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks, judicial responses, and case law; and the constitutional and human rights implications associated with shutdown measures in both countries. It will also consider the economic, social, and political impacts of these measures across India and Pakistan.
This webinar will be presented by Senior Foreign Law Specialist Tariq Ahmad. Tariq’s work at the Law Library primarily covers South Asian common-law jurisdictions, particularly India and Pakistan. He takes a particular research interest in religion and law issues in the South Asia region. Tariq holds an LL.M. degree in international law from American University Washington College of Law and an LL.B. from University College London.
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.
Prior to the Great Depression, live theater was an incredibly popular form of entertainment in the United States. This was particularly common in New York City, where hundreds of productions were attended. Despite competition from the rising motion-picture industry, live theater remained extremely popular as Broadway attracted international theater companies as well as numerous famous actors and playwrights throughout the 1920s. However, once the Great Depression hit the country, theater became a luxury few could afford, and subsequently, actors, playwrights, and other theater industry employees fell into unemployment. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) established the Works Progress Administration through Executive Order 7034, resulting in a federally funded administration with the intention to provide relief for unemployed Americans. This was a component of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 (49 Stat. 115), itself part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal Programs. These programs aimed to alleviate financial hardships for Americans during the Great Depression.
Included in the Works Progress Administration was the Federal Project One, which was made up of five projects related to providing federal funding for the arts in America. The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was one of these programs. Its purpose, as stated in the 1935 Manual for Federal Theatre Projects, was the “re-employment of theatre workers now on the relief rolls,” which would ease financial hardships for theater workers, while bringing entertainment to Americans across the country. One of the main purposes of the Federal Theatre Project was to make live theater accessible to communities around the country that did not have the opportunity to engage with it before. Hallie Flanagan, the director of the Federal Theatre Project, established 13“theatre regions” that would make up a national network allowing for exchanges of writing, resources, and more. Flanagan’s main contributions came through her time directing the Federal Theatre Project, in which she oversaw the operations that brought theater all over the country and produced many unique and influential shows. For the first time, live theater had a truly national reach as “[p]erformances toured to virtually every corner of the nation—coast to coast—often traveling to rural areas where live theater was seldom seen, with some shows performed outdoors using portable stages.”
[Map showing] research service to 40 Federal Theatre units, research service to 5 Federal Theatre regions, research on the subject of the American theatre in 48 states. 1930. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3701e.ct003196
Photographic prints from New York production of Macbeth. Finding Aid Box 1179. 1934. Library of Congress Music Division. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/fprph.11790088
Despite every production going through the aforementioned approval processes, many caused controversy. Multiple plays produced by the Federal Theatre Project commented on social issues or drew inspiration from events affecting people across society, such as Ethiopia, which dramatized events leading to Benito Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia. Ethiopia was also considered to be the first “Living Newspaper,” which was a form of play that was made up of scenes based on newspaper articles. However, production was canceled due to the portrayal of foreign leaders.
Many other plays also addressed relevant social events of the time, with varying degrees of success. An example can be seen in One-Third of a Nation, which was centered around social, economic, and racial issues in America, specifically the housing crisis in New York City. The title was a reference to FDR’s second inaugural address, as he stated, “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.” This show would become the most successful of the Living Newspapers as it ran 237 productions. However, a musical that also addressed social issues of the time, The Cradle Will Rock, was shut down before opening night by New York authorities. The musical included strong pro-labor messages that drew upon the labor action movements occurring at the same time.
One Third of A Nation. 1934. Library of Congress Music Division. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/musihas.200217050
Shortly after this, the funding for the Federal Theatre Project ceased, which ended the project. Although the Federal Theatre Project was short-lived, it provided much-needed relief for theater workers and made theater more accessible throughout the United States during a time of extreme hardship. Additionally, it has preserved an era through a dramatized lens that will enable us to reflect on and study the Great Depression and other events of the time from another perspective.
Image 3 of Portraits of Hallie Flanagan. 1934. Library of Congress Music Division. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/musftpphotoprints.200223898
Despite the suspension of the Federal Theatre Project after four years of operation, new efforts to provide artistic funding persisted. In 1965, Congress established the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) (Public Law 89-209). This organization has continuously provided federal funding for theater and other arts, allowing Americans to partake in and experience artistic endeavors in a wide range of areas, facilitated by government grants. You can still research the vast history of the Federal Theatre Project here at the Library, and in the records of the Works Progress Administration at the National Archives.
Subscribeto 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.
On Thursday, May 14, 2026, the Law Library of Congress held an online celebration to mark the 10th anniversary of its remote metadata internship program. Speakers at the event included Jay Sweany, Assistant Law Librarian of Congress for Collections; Aslihan Bulut, Law Librarian of Congress; Kimberly Powell, Chief of Talent Recruitment and Outreach at the Library of Congress; Andrew Weber, product owner for Congress.gov; and Tina Gheen, chief of the Digital Resources Division. Also speaking at the event were Jill Reilly Corbett, Catalog and Online Access Director at the National Archives, who helped found the program; Jennifer González, senior legal information specialist at the Law Library of Congress, who has shepherded the program for all of its 10-year history; and several former interns.
Jill Reilly Corbett and Jennifer González founded the remote metadata program in May 2016 to provide a meaningful, hands-on professional experience that could transcend geography for the increasing number of graduate students in the nation’s online MLIS programs. Although two-thirds of the program participants are MLIS students; the program welcomes a diverse set of other participants as well, including Ph.D. students, law students, upper-level undergraduates, retirees, military spouses, people on leave or job searching, and current librarians looking to add to their skills in a changing profession. In all, 917 interns and volunteers have participated in the program since its inception in 2016.
Over the past 10 years, the internship program has hosted nearly four dozen culminating projects, including capstone projects, directed fieldwork and practicum experiences, and graduate theses, for MLIS students in their final semesters.
Over the past decade, the 917 participants in the Law Library’s remote internship programs have contributed more than 30,000 hours of work, published 82 blog posts, and created 9 story maps to expand access to the Law Library’s digital collection portfolio. Image created by Elizabeth White, Library of Congress.
González’s philosophy is to offer this opportunity to those who need a high-quality internship with space and autonomy for other commitments. The program is remote and online, to reach as many people across the country/world as possible; asynchronous, to allow participants in different time zones to do the work at the time convenient for them; flexible, to allow participants to rearrange hours within the semester as needed; autonomous, so they can develop career skills like decision-making and task management; and part-time, to allow for full-time work, school, or family obligations. Nearly 30% of participants return for multiple semesters. More than 100 participants have continued with the program for longer than a year (three semesters). Recently, there has been a leadership component added for the interns who continue to return.
As one of the few high-quality, autonomous, and flexible remote experiences available to MLIS students in online programs, demand continues to outpace available space. Despite averaging 55-75 students for each of our three semester sessions, González still has to turn away qualified people.Nevertheless, the reach of the program has been remarkable, with interns and volunteers from nearly all of the top library and law programs represented in the program. Participants have joined the program from all 50 states and more than 20 different countries.
Interns and volunteers in the programs have come from most of the country’s top library and law schools. Image created by Elizabeth White, Library of Congress.
To mark the 10th anniversary of the program, González conducted a survey of former interns and alumni of the program this past spring. Ninety-five percent (95%) of respondents reported that they had a positive experience and are likely to recommend the internship program to others. They noted improved research skills, writing skills, greater facility with remote collaboration, and a deeper understanding of government libraries, law libraries, and public librarianship. Interns also expressed gratitude for the career-building opportunities and resume-building skills they gained while volunteering for the Library of Congress. Finally, several reported a renewed interest in participating in crowd-sourced, large-scale projects that improve access to information for the public good.
Perhaps the most important marker of the program’s success, however, is the fact that graduates of the program have gone on to work at many different academic, government, and public libraries, as well as universities, museums, Fortune 500 companies, law firms, and legal aid organizations. Several graduates have continued to work for the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office, as reference librarians, archivists, digital public records interns, data analysts, and volunteers.
“Their impact on our shared profession is extensive,” said González. “We are so proud to have been part of each alumni’s journey.”
Interns and volunteers have gone on to work for some of the country’s best academic institutions, companies, and governmental organizations. Image created by Elizabeth White, Library of Congress.
We are very thankful to all the interns who have dedicated their time, skills, and contributions to this project. If you or someone you know are interested in being involved with this project or other Law Library internships in the future, please be sure to visit the Internships page of our website for more information on how to apply.
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.
Chew Heong is the defendant in the eponymous case, Chew Heong v. United States (112 U.S. 536 (1884)), which ruled to protect the rights of immigrant laborers and thus challenged some of the harsher stipulations of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
This Story Map also includes an interactive map detailing anti-Chinese incidents in the western United States between 1871 and 1887, accompanied by historical images from the Library’sPrints and Photographs Division.
The interactive map from the Chew Heong and Chinese Exclusion Story Map, displaying the entry for the Rock Springs Massacre. You can quickly access this map by clicking on the Major Anti-Chinese Incidents header in the Story Map.
We hope you enjoy this latest addition to our collection and look forward to bringing you more immersive research aids in the future!
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.
This Memorial Day, May 25, 2026, will be the 160th anniversary of the first official celebration of the holiday by a jurisdiction, when it was celebrated in Waterloo,New York, on May 19, 1866. Even before the official commemoration, Northerners and Southerners were remembering their Civil War dead by erecting statues and decorating graves with flowers and flags. After 2.5% of the population died in the Civil War (proportionate to 7 million people today), many people mourned a fallen soldier. On May 1, 1865, the African American community of Charleston, including 3,000 schoolchildren, 300 women from the Patriotic Association, and men from the Mutual Aid Society, held a procession to honor the 257 Union soldiers who lay in an unmarked grave in a former Confederate prison camp racecourse. The burial ground was remade as the Martyrs of the Racecourse Cemetery; a very large and well-organized ceremony took place, including laying flowers, singing “John Brown’s Body,” and strewing flowers and petals. (Blight, 69-70.)
Korean War Memorial, Washington, D.C. May 2025 [photo by J. Davis]
“… flowers, and wreaths were gathered from the general public, the botanical gardens, the President’s Conservatory, and the Treasury gardens. The floral tributes and attendees all crossed the Potomac River to Arlington via the Long Bridge. The ceremony was called to order at Arlington House by W.T. Collins, Esq., in the presence of General and Mrs. Grant. The mansion once owned by General Robert E. Lee was draped in mourning. The proclamation issued by General John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic that established May 30 as the official holiday was read by the master of ceremonies.”
Early Memorial Day celebrations were known as Decoration Day, in reference to the banners, flowers, and grave ornamentation made on the day to honor the fallen. The name and the date of the holiday officially changed in 1968, when Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act (PL 90-363), and named Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. In 2000, Congress underlined the importance of the holiday by asking Americans to observe a minute of silence to remember those who gave their lives in service for us and our country in the National Moment of Remembrance Act, as P.L. 106-579.
Memorial Day wreath (“We will never forget your sacrifice”) at Korean War Memorial, Washington, D.C., May 2025 [photo by J. Davis]
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.
As the country celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence through various America 250 events nationwide, I decided it would be a great time to be a tourist locally in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Known most famously for the Battle of Fredericksburg during the Civil War, the city is steeped in history. Across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, in what was once King George County but is now Stafford County, sits Ferry Farm – the boyhood home of George Washington from age 6 until young adulthood. Tourists can walk the grounds of the house and tour the rebuilt Washington home, completed in 2018 following the 2008 archaeological discovery of the original house’s foundation. Archaeologists are currently excavating the land around the original home to see if they can recover the foundations of several smaller buildings that evidence suggests were there.
The rebuilt Washington House from the front. The front of the house faces the Rappahannock River and overlooks downtown Fredericksburg, VA. Picture courtesy of Taylor Gulatsi.
Additionally, there are two Washington family residences that tourists can explore when visiting Fredericksburg. One being Historic Kenmore, which was built for George’s sister, Betty, and her husband, Fielding Lewis, in 1775.
The Historic Kenmore Mansion in Fredericksburg, VA. Picture courtesy of Taylor Gulatsi.
George purchased the Mary Washington House in 1772 for his mother, which is within walking distance of Historic Kenmore. Mary lived in this home until her death, 17 years after the house was purchased.
The Mary Washington House, located in Fredericksburg, VA, was bought for Mary by George. Picture courtesy of Taylor Gulatsi.
The Rising Sun Tavern, which was built by Charles Washington, the youngest brother of George. Picture courtesy of Taylor Gulatsi.
If you are not able to visit Fredericksburg before the 250th, but can visit the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., you can explore the current exhibit, “The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution,” which runs through July 4, 2026. The exhibit examines the parallels between King George III and George Washington as leaders, and additionally, the similarities and differences in their interests, beliefs, and upbringing. Coincidentally, George Washington, being raised in Fredericksburg, is another underlying connection between the two Georges, as the city was named for Frederick, Prince of Wales and father of King George III.
While George Washington was not a signer of the Declaration of Independence, July 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Keep an eye out for more posts that celebrate the Declaration, the lives of its signers, and the world in which they lived.
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.
The same month, we added the 117th Congress of the House Roll Call Votes to Congress.gov. We launched the House Roll Call Votes on Congress.gov in August 2025 with the 118th and 118th Congresses. With today’s release, we are adding House Roll Call Votes from the 116th Congress, which was 2019-2020.
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.
We hope you can join us for the continuation of our U.S. law webinars in 2026. In June, we are offering an Orientation to Legal Research webinar focusing on federal legislative history. Additionally, we will host another session in our Introduction to Congress.gov series. This webinar is designed to provide a basic overview of how to use Congress.gov and to highlight its new features. For more information and to register, please visit the links below.
We look forward to having you join us for these informative and engaging webinars!
Orientation to Legal Research: Federal Legislative History
Date: Thursday, June 4, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Content: This webinar is designed to give a basic introduction to legal sources and research techniques. This entry in the series provides an overview of U.S. federal legislative history resources, including information about the methods of identifying and locating them. In tackling this area of research, the focus will largely be on finding these documents online. We will be highlighting freely available governmental websites like Congress.gov, GovInfo, and Law.gov, and quickly touch on subscription databases that can be accessed at one’s local public law or academic library.
Content: This orientation is designed to give a basic overview of Congress.gov. While the focus of the session will be searching legislation and the Congressional member information attached to the legislation, the new features of Congress.gov will be highlighted.
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.
The orange is the state fruit of Florida. Orange juice is the state beverage. However, until just over 500 years ago, citrus trees would not have been seen in Florida. Citrus was brought to Florida by the Spanish as part of the Columbian Exchange. It is likely that early Spanish explorers were the first to plant orange trees in Florida, specifically, near the area that would become the city of St. Augustine. However, it would be another 300 years before the commercial growth of citrus in Florida.
After recovering in the early 20th century, another prosperous period coincided with the Florida land boom of the early 1920s. Unfortunately, after a hurricane in 1926 ended this period of population growth, each passing year seemed to bring a new calamity for the citrus industry: a freeze in 1927, followed by another hurricane in 1928. Finally, an infestation of the Mediterranean fruit fly in 1929 paralyzed the industry for the duration of the Great Depression.
Packing citrus fruit. Fort Pierce, Florida. Rothstein, Arthur, photographer. January 1937. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b28477
The 1940s and 1950s were times of significant expansion for the citrus industry, although the years between 1945 and 1960 saw a shift from individual farms to corporations and conglomerates as the main source of concentrate, as demand increased 120%.
In the 1970s, the appearance of Disney World in Orange County and the subsequent exponential growth of Orlando’s population resulted in land previously used for citrus cultivation being used for theme parks, housing, and highways. In the 1980s, the entire state experienced multiple freezes in the 1980s that further damaged the industry.
Tangerines from citrus groves of Hernando County, Florida. Rothstein, Arthur, photographer. February 1937. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b35706
In the meantime, the Florida Department of Citrus continues to advocate for the state’s citrus industry as an executive agency. From their web page, you can meet local growers from across the state, peruse recipes, and follow the work of their administrators, the Florida Citrus Commission. Vintage citrus labels have also been the subject of multiple exhibits, including at the Museum of Florida History and the Brevard Museum of History and Natural Science. Meanwhile, the U.S. imports tangerines and mandarins increasingly each year, with 555,000 metric tons expected as of early 2026, primarily from Chile and Peru.
Subscribeto 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.
Please join us on May 28, 2026, at 10 a.m. EDT for our next foreign and comparative law webinar titled: “You Can’t Do That! Rules on Parliamentary Behavior in Australia and New Zealand.”
During the past two years, some members of parliament in Australia and New Zealand have faced sanctions for their behavior in the debating chamber. In one significant case, the Privileges Committee of the New Zealand Parliament recommended lengthy suspensions for three members of Te Pāti Māori (the Māori Party) for performing a haka during a vote on a controversial bill. Following a subsequent vote in the House of Representatives, two of the members were suspended for 21 days for contempt of Parliament, while the third member was suspended for seven days. Previously, the longest suspension of a member had been for three days in 1987.
In Australia, a senator in the federal parliament was suspended after wearing a burqa in the Australian Senate and refusing to follow orders to remove it or withdraw. A censure motion was passed the following day, resulting in the seven-day suspension.
Both of these incidents gained international media attention.
In our upcoming webinar, foreign law specialist Kelly Buchanan will outline the rules that regulate the conduct of members of the national parliaments of Australia and New Zealand and how they are enforced, including their application in these two cases. In addition, rules that apply to speech or conduct outside of the debating chamber, including in the parliamentary workplace and elsewhere, will also be covered.
The webinar will be presented by Kelly Buchanan. Kelly is a foreign law specialist at the Law Library of Congress who conducts research and writes reports on the laws of Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and independent Pacific Island nations. She holds a Bachelors of Laws with honors and a Bachelor of Arts in social policy from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She has worked for New Zealand government agencies and as an advisor in the New Zealand Parliament.
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.
