September 17, 2010
The Honorable Charles E. Schumer
Chairman, Committee on Rules and Administration
305 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Bob Bennett
Ranking Member, Committee on Rules and Administration
479 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Robert A. Brady
Chairman, Committee on House Administration
1309 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Dan Lungren
Ranking Member, Committee on House Administration
1313 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairmen Schumer and Brady and Ranking Members Bennett and Lungren:
On the 223rd anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, we the undersigned organizations write to urge that the legal treatise Constitution Annotated be published online in XML format each time it is updated. The Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation, as it is formally known, is an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and others interested in learning how the U.S. Supreme Court interprets our nation’s governing document. Organized to explain the Constitution clause by clause, the Constitution Annotated has been continuously published for nearly 100 years and contains analysis of nearly 8,000 U.S. Supreme Court cases.
As you know, the Constitution Annotated is currently available online in plain text and PDF formats that do not allow readers to efficiently search, navigate, and electronically transform the text. Moreover, the Congressional Research Service regularly updates the Constitution Annotated and publishes revisions on the congressional intranet, but the public document is only updated every two years. Because CRS already maintains the document in XML format, it should not be difficult to publish each update on the internet when it occurs.
After the Sunlight Foundation’s letter of September 17, 2009 and Senator Feingold’s letter of October 28, 2009 on this topic, CRS and GPO held discussions regarding publication of the Constitution Annotated. GPO has stated that it is awaiting direction from the Senate. While we believe that CRS and GPO already have a mandate to publish the Constitution Annotated as we have requested and should do so now, we also urge the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and/or the Committee on House Administration to reaffirm and direct that this vital resource be made available to the American people online as it is updated and in XML.
We welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue with us further. Please contact Daniel Schuman at the Sunlight Foundation at 202-742-1520 x 273 or dschuman@sunlightfoundation.com.
With best regards,
Mary Alice Baish, American Association of Law Librarians
The Honorable Bob Barr
Christopher Finan, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
Norm Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute
Lynne Bradley, American Library Association
Leslie Harris, Center for Democracy and Technology
J. Bradley Jansen, Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights
Josh Tauburer, Civic Impulse, LLC
Tom Bruce, Cornell Legal Information Institute
Sue Udry, Defending Dissent Foundation
David Sobel, Electronic Frontier Foundation
John Richard, Essential Information
Ethel Sorokin, Freedom Projects
Mark Hicks, Friends of the U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation
Michael Ostrolenk, Liberty Coalition
Northern California Association of Law Libraries
Patrice McDermott, OpenTheGovernment.org
David Moore, Participatory Politics Foundation
Progressive Librarians Guild
James Landrith, The Multiracial Activist
Jerry Goldman, The Oyez Project
Ellen Miller, Sunlight Foundation
Dane vonBreichenruchard, U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation
cc: Daniel P. Mulhollan, Director, Congressional Research Service
Dr. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress
Robert C. Tapella, Public Printer of the United States, U.S. Government Printing Office