This Day In The Law: Federal Alcohol Control Administration Established

"On December 4, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt established the Federal Alcohol Control Administration (FACA) by executive order under the National Industrial Recovery Act just prior to the formal end of Prohibition.

FACA was charged with guiding legitimate wineries and distilleries under a system based on brewers' voluntary codes of fair competition. It effectively vanished from history after just twenty months, when President Roosevelt in August 1935 signed the Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA) Act, lodging alcohol regulation exclusively with the US Treasury Department, where it currently remains under the jurisdiction of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, formerly the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)."

Acknowledgement to Jurist.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

New CRS Report: The Evolving Congress

This new CRS report on “The Evolving Congress "is a compendium of 22 reports that examine how and why Congress evolved over the previous decades to where it is today.

• Congressional Research Service. 2014. The Evolving Congress. Senate. Committee on Rules and Administration. Senate Committee Print 113–30 (“89–394”) (Y 4.R 86/2) Washington: Government Printing Office. (December 1, 2014).

"The goal of this project is to inform the legislative debate moving forward by examining how and why Congress evolved over the previous decades to where it is today."

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

The Illustrated Courtroom blog

Ever wonder about those art illustrations made during trials? We usually see one or two illustrations during news coverage but at the Illustrated Courtroom blog you can check out numerous illustrations of newsworthy trials and cases. The blog contains illustrations by Howard Brodie, Aggie Kenny, Bill Robles, Richard Tomlinson and Elizabeth Williams.  According to the blog, "much of the artwork is used for TV news, but not seen in print or online, so here it is available to the public."  Click here to access the blog.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat