Constitution Annotated Gets an Online Makeover
The Library of Congress recently released an online version of The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, often referred to as the Constitution Annotated or, more aptly, given its 2800 page length, CONAN. In this work, the text of the Constitution is annotated with extensive commentary, historical analysis, and case summaries written by the American Law Division of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and published as a U.S. Senate document. Two key tools included in the book are the Table of Supreme Court Decisions Overruled by Subsequent Decisions and the Table of Laws Held Unconstitutional in Whole or in Part by the Supreme Court.
The Constitution Annotated has been published since 1913. Although an online version has been available from the Government Printing Office since 1992, the new Library of Congress version is more robust, searchable, and user-friendly. It includes case law links and a Boolean search engine. Over the next few years, CRS and the Library of Congress will work to modernize the Constitution Annotated to “better enhance its educational value to a broader audience and to reflect the most recent Supreme Court terms.” Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, explains:
To be successful, collections must be used. That’s why I’m excited about the Constitution Annotated getting a new website. It’s a great example of what we mean when we say we’re putting our users first. . . . We’ve taken some of the most comprehensive analysis of our Constitution — the laws that make America what it is — and we’re making them easier for everyone to use. (Global Legal Monitor; “United States: The Constitution, Annotated: The Constitution Explained in Plain English”)
In the definitive treatise on print-based legal research, How to Find the Law, 9th edition (West, 1989, 716 p.), Morris Cohen, Bob Berring, and Kent Olson praise, but also critique, the Constitution Annotated:
The major shortcoming of this otherwise superb work is its infrequent revision and supplementation. Before the current 1987 edition there had been no pocket part for five years. The new volume was already five years out-of-date the day it was published. Unless regular pocket part supplementation is provided, thorough updating will generally require the use of other, more current sources. Although the volume must be used with increasing caution as it ages, it remains an authoritative and useful resource for constitutional research. (p. 204)
CRS and the Government Printing Office corrected this shortcoming with multiple editions and supplements published since 2000. The most recent decennial bound edition was published in 2012 and supplemented with an interim pocket part in 2018 that includes Supreme Court cases decided through June 28, 2018. The Library of Congress notes that the next supplement will be published in 2020 and the next new bound edition will be published in 2022. (RM)
