U.S. Congressional Documents

On August 16, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. You’ve probably heard something about it, especially as this legislation has been a long time coming—ever since Biden took office. Let’s take a look at what this bill includes, using resources from HeinOnline.

It’s a word we hear in the news all the time: the filibuster. Whether it’s politicians calling for an end to the filibuster, worrying about an impending filibuster, or praising the merits of the filibuster, the filibuster is both a loved and feared word depending on who you ask.

Did you take a vacation for spring break? Perhaps you and your family booked a cruise and sailed to warmer waters, sandy beaches, and exciting shore excursions. Hopefully on that cruise, you enjoyed a great buffet, amazing live entertainment, and swam in a pool with a giant curling water slide. Hopefully nothing happened on your vacation that forced you to swim in the murky legal waters that govern cruising when the vacation goes awry. When an assault, robbery, or even a murder happens aboard a cruise ship, different jurisdictions apply than those passengers may be familiar with while on land.

So much of our lives is controlled by time. Whether it is 8 a.m. or 8 p.m. determines whether we are getting ready for work or getting ready for bed. However, nothing quite illustrates the fact that time is a made-up construct than the history of daylight saving—in fact, for two decades of the 20th century, states were even allowed to make up their own daylight saving rules, often rendering time zones meaningless.

For this post in honor of Women’s History Month, let’s turn the clock back to America in 1916. World War I had torn Europe apart for the last three years, and the United States teetered on the edge of falling into the conflict. Women did not have the right to vote at the federal level. But this lack of a voice had not prevented Montana from electing Jeannette Rankin to the House of Representatives—the first woman elected to federal office.

On February 24th, Russia launched what Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation” in Ukraine, claiming to seek demilitarization and denazification. Russian forces began unprovoked missile and artillery attacks striking major Ukrainian cities. Tensions had been rising as Russian troops were slowly assembling at the Ukraine border[1] for the last year amidst Putin’s security demands on North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The resulting evacuations have created what is being considered the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

Are men and women seen as equal under the law in 2022 America? Women have the right to vote and to equal wages, and there are more women in power than ever before. And sex discrimination has been tackled in various federal and state laws over the years. However, the United States Constitution[1] does not yet recognize equality on the basis of sex. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) would change that, making sure that women’s basic rights are forever protected. However, despite the fact that it was written nearly 100 years ago, the ERA has not yet been ratified.

On January 6, 2021, millions of Americans watched in horror as a mob consisting of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building to disrupt the counting of electoral votes and protest the assumed win of Joseph R. Biden Jr. A year later, our nation still feels the effects of this catastrophic event. On this solemn anniversary, we take a look back at the impact of the Capitol attack with the extensive related content that users can find within HeinOnline.