Thomas Jefferson and the Danbury Letter

From the Government Documents department...

In the first Thanksgiving proclamation, George Washington established November 26, 1798 as a day dedicated "to service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be." Read the full text of the proclamation here. Every president since has issued a similar proclamation -- expect for Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, and, most notably, Thomas Jefferson.

In 1802, President Jefferson wrote a letter to a Baptist church in Danbury, Connecticut, in thanks for their praise of him as the newly-elected president. He also used the letter to explain his reasons for not issuing a proclamation of thanksgiving and prayer:

"religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions."

This letter has become an important and, some say, revealing document from which the phrase, "a wall of separation between church and state" originates. This letter has been cited at least five times by members of the Supreme Court to support the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Some argue that, because this letter was penned many years after the Bill of Rights was written, it is not a good indicator of the intentions of that document's authors. Others feel that, as author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson certainly played an important role in the formation of the country, and his opinions, at whatever time, should be considered. Either way, Jefferson's description of the separatist wall endures as a metaphor for church-state relations.

For more history, go to A Wall of Separation, presented by the Library of Congress. Here, you can link to the text of the Danbury letter and view the original document.

Providing access to CONAN online

From the Government Documents department...

Last month, Senator Russell Feingold, who currently sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the Government Printing Office (GPO) requesting that the publication of an important legal research tool undergo a revision. That tool is The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation.

CONAN, as it’s called, is published every ten years as a single volume, with biennial supplements published in the interim. It’s a cumbersome tome with incomplete coverage, due to the lag time between publication of the supplements. It is available in PDF via GPO Access, but the files are quite large, making navigation of the text impracticable. Furthermore, the electronic version is simply a reproduction of the static print version, without any updates or changes to the material over time. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) does update the material regularly, but does not make the new information available to the public until the next biennial supplement is published. Only members of Congress are privy to the updated content; CRS makes it available to them via the Congressional intranet in XML format. In his letter, Senator Feingold urges the GPO to make the updated content available to the general public as well, thereby granting equal access to everyone easily and inexpensively.

We spotlighted CONAN in this blog in September, just after we received the 2008 biennial supplement in print. Unfortunately, it is already out-of-date, and we won’t receive the next supplement until 2011. If Congress has access to the most current information in a format that is easily searchable, why shouldn’t we?

Carl Malamud introduces Law.gov

From the Government Documents department...

Carl Malamud, a public domain advocate and champion of transparency in government, is determined to make public information more accessible. He has already succeeded by opening access to SEC filings through a free, online database known as EDGAR. He is also responsible for Fedflix and has contributed millions of bankruptcy and Federal District Court documents to RECAP, the new Firefox plugin that captures documents from PACER. Now, Mr. Malamud has created Law.gov, a “distributed, open source, authenticated registry and repository of all primary legal materials in the United States.” This site has three goals:

• To develop law.Gov as a central tool for access to all United States primary legal materials, with the hope of creating streamlined, efficient and consistent access for all citizens

• To systematically capture, preserve and maintain all primary United States legal materials which are born digital

• To make all United States primary legal materials freely accessible to all its citizens

Mr. Malamud believes that public documents and the information they contain serve as the operating system of our democracy; we all have a right to view, read, and utilize these documents without any bureaucratic or financial barriers. As his new project, Law.gov, evolves, we should be able to access information that is currently only available for a fee levied by the government (as is the case with PACER) or through subscription-based services. This is definitely a development to watch.

See also:

Law.gov: America's Operating System, Open Source by Carl Malamud, O'Reily Radar, October 15, 2009

An Effort to Upgrade a Court Archive System to Free and Easy, New York Times, February 12, 2009

Transparency Chic, Wall Street Journal, August 21, 2009

Recent Legislation Introduced to make CRS Reports Available Online

From the Government Documents department...

Democratic congressional representative Frank M. Kratovil, Jr. recently introduced legislation (H.R. 3762) to expand the availability of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports via the Internet. The goal of this bill, which complements S. Res. 118 introduced earlier this year by Senator Joseph Lieberman, is to "increase transparency and help citizens become more informed and engaged advocates." (Read Representaive Kratovil's press release here.)

CRS reports are produced by the Library of Congress as a legislative research tool for members of the House and Senate. These reports are public domain documents, yet they are not made available directly to the public. Constituents can request the reports from their Senators and Congressional Representatives; the reports can also be purchased from private vendors. However, aside from a few online archives assembled by various universities and public interest organizations, there is no central, comprehensive repository of CRS reports on the Internet. That's why the recent legislative efforts to expand their availability are so critical.

To encourage further sponsorship in Congress for the initiatives proposed by Representative Kratovil and Senator Lieberman, the American Assocaition of Law Libraries is calling upon concerned citizens to voice their support. The AALL Government Relations Office has issued an Action Alert that makes it easy for you to write to your senators and House representatives. The Alert includes sample emails and links to the Webmail forms of your members of Congress so that you can easily start writing an email right away. Please take action. Your help will keep the momentum going on this important issue.

For more information about CRS reports and to find links to CRS sources online, read the Guide to CRS Reports on the Web, available from LLRX.com

Can't find a book? Try ILL!

By Heather Waltman, Interlibrary Loan & Reference Librarian

You may not be aware that the library provides interlibrary loan services to all South Texas College of Law faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students. If you need a book or article that we don't own, we are usually able to locate it in another library and borrow it for you (if a book) or send it to you electronically (if an article). And it's easy! Just go to the Library tab in Stanley, scroll down to the Interlibrary Loan channel on the left, and click on the link to ILLiad, our automated ILL request system. You will need to create an account with a unique username and password, and then you can start submitting requests. The system is very user friendly and convenient, and you can track the progress of your request throughout the whole process. For more information, take a look at the ILLiad FAQ page or email the Interlibrary Loan Librarian at stclill@stcl.edu.

You can also view a very short tutorial here.

Even if you're already an ILLiad user, you may not know about one of its features that makes submitting requests even easier. After locating an item in OCLC FirstSearch (WorldCat or ArticleFirst), view the full record display. Under the section labeled "Get This Item," you will see a link that says "Send Request to ILLiad." When you click on this link, the ILLiad Logon page will open in a new window. Logon as you normally would, and the form (for Book or Photocopy, depending on your request type) should open, and all fields will be populated with the bibliographic information from OCLC. Click the submit button. It's that easy, and it saves you the trouble of keying in all that info yourself! If you've already used this feature, you'll know how convenient it is. If you've experienced problems submitting requests through OCLC from off campus, you will no longer have any difficulty. Any snags in off-campus accessibility to ILLiad via OCLC have been repaired.

Banned books Weeks: Celebrate the Freedom to Read, September 26 – October 3, 2009

By Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian


On October 27, 1553 Michael Servetus, a scientist and theologian, was burned at the stake with the last known copy of his heretical book, the Christianismi Restitutio, chained to his leg. Three copies of this work survived the flames and can be found today at the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and the library of the University of Edinburgh. While authors no longer face such extreme punishment when their work is deemed objectionable, they are sanctioned nonetheless when libraries, schools, and communities are pressured to remove their books from shelves and classrooms. For these authors, and in recognition of all censored authors before them, Banned Books Week is celebrated each year.


"History is an ocean that books help us to navigate. It is the permanence of the printed word that has allowed ideas to travel from place to place, from age to age." (Lawrence Goldstone & Nancy Goldstone, Out of the Flames 325, Broadway Books 2002) Today books are banned mainly because of sex, offensive language, violence, religion or politics, particularly in school districts. The American Library Association and the Fred Parks Law Library want you to celebrate the freedom to read. Check out the list of the most frequently banned books of the 21st century, and the list of banned Classics. How many have you read?


A selection of banned books from the librarians’ personal collections is on display in the lobby, along with books from the Fred Parks Law Library. Come see the exhibit and join us in celebrating our freedom to read.

BNA For Law Review

Are you a South Texas College of Law student looking for a topic for a research paper? Would you like to become more familiar with some of the databases offered by the Fred Parks Law Library?

The Fred Parks Law Library will be holding a review session with a BNA representative in the library for any students who are interested in learning more about BNA databases.

Where: Fred Parks Law Library, Room 2018
When: 2:15 pm, September 17th

ABOUT BNA

• Independent publisher of more than 300 print and electronic news, analysis and references services.
• Intensive coverage of legal, legislative, regulatory, economic and international developments on a wide range of topics.
• Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with reporters covering Capitol Hill and the world for over 75 years.
• Publications include the highly respected United States Law Week.