Novalawcity

Senate and House YouTube Channels

The US Senate and House of Representatives have YouTube Channels. Video of House Representatives or Senators is organized by State and Last Name.

See for example the personal YouTube Channels of the Senators from Florida, Mel Martinez & Bill Nelson .

The House Hub & the Senate Hub are worth exploring for congressional information.

The Complete Stimulus Bill

Every amendment, version, and vote on the economic stimulus package in Congress is available at the website ReadTheStimulus.org.

Best Interests of the Child

Before the November elections, Florida was the only state with a statute forbidding an otherwise eligible person from adopting if that person was a homosexual Fla. Stat. 63.042(3) (2008).  This despite the fact that Fla. Stat. 63.022(2) (2008) clearly states that it "is the intent of the Legislature that in every adoption, the best interest of the child should govern and be of foremost concern..."

In November, Arkansas joined Florida in denying children loving parents.  Act 1 additionally bars adoption by unmarried heterosexual couples, thereby skirting an earlier Arkansas Supreme Court decision striking down a regulation which barred homosexual couples from becoming foster parents.

Arkansas has made some curious choices.  A conviction for a major crime, say contributing to the delinquency of a minor, does not make you ineligible to adopt.  Neither does being single, and having a lot of casual sexual partners.  See this editorial in the New York Times  However, if you are in a committed relationship with a partner to whom you are not married, Arkansas automatically deems you unfit to adopt. Anita Bryant is to blame for Florida's ban on adoption by homosexuals, what's Arkansas' excuse?

TheCongressBlog.org

The Dirksen Congressional Center announces a new current awareness resource: TheCongressBlog.org. It reviews current legislative activity, and also provides historical notes of interest. Check it out!

Spotlight on LII's US Code Collection

AbsTracked takes another look at the Cornell Legal Information Institute's US Code Collection, noting several features to be aware of including the fact that it is updated regularly from the Law Revision Counsel's Classification Tables and that you can stay up to date on changes to titles that are of interest through the use of RSS feeds.

FISA & Feats of Strength

Hearty souls who monitor pending legislation are probably well aware of THOMAS, the Library of Congress web site dedicated to making U.S. government information available online.  You know, hawt stuff like bills and the Federal Register.  However, I'd like to take a moment to give a big shout out to GovTrack.US. 

This fabulous free resource offers all sorts of goodies.  CRS summaries, the full text of bills, overviews, speeches, voting rolls, congressional district maps -- it's like Festivus for policy wonks but much, much more!  GovTrack.US even provides handy RSS feeds and e-mail alerts which subscribers can use to track bills like Bambi's Mom on opening day of hunting season.

Serious props are due to the good folks at GovTrack.US for their diligent coverage of the latest round of FISA-related bills.  Intended to amend Public Law 95-511 (a.k.a. the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978), the forthcoming amendments will "establish a procedure for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence." 

Frankly, I'm not sure which I find more upsetting -- re-watching "that scene" from Bambi or knowing that S. 2248 and H.R.3773 were both passed by wide margins.  Ah, so many civil liberties, so little time to undermine them.... After all, what's a little warrantless electronic surveillance between a government and its constituents? ;) 

Disclaimer: No animals, cartoon or otherwise, were harmed in the making of this post although my chocolate Lab did fall asleep on my foot.  Twice.

Uh-oh! Everybody makes mistakes sometimes...

There's a great post on Slate.com explaining the mix-up this week in which the President vetoed a different version of a 673-page farm bill than the one passed by the House and the Senate.  Since the Supreme Court ruled (Field v. Clark, 143 U.S.  649 (1892)) that the version signed by the President stands, the solution has been to pass separate "technical corrections" legislation to resolve the discrepancies.  Search Thomas for the phrase 'technical corrections', and you'll be surprised at how many hits come up for the current session alone!

PublicMarkup.org

The Sunlight Foundation has launched a new project, PublicMarkup.org,  to encourage public participation in the construction of a model government transparency bill, which they've named Transparency in Government 2008.  Read more in Joe Hodnicki's post on Law Librarian Blog.

Congress Twitters

Both Houses tweet - see TVC for info.

Toddlers can no longer marry in Arkansas, or the importance of proof reading

Yahoo reports that because of an extraneous "not" that no one noticed when the Arkansas legislative session ended last year, the state accidentally removed the minimum age requirement for marriage, which meant that any children under the age of 18 could marry with parental permission.  The state had intended to adjust the marriage age requirement and make it 18 for all, but last week they took advantage of a special session to simply return the requirement to what it was before the mistake (17 for boys and 16 for girls).

Rep. Will Bond, who sponsored the bad bill, took the blame. "I always thought if you put your name on a bill, you should be ready to take the blame if you're willing to accept the credit," he said.

Hat tip: jennielaw at law.librarians