This portal is designed to provide educational resources concerning the operation of the United States government and its legal system.
Explore the U.S. Capitol
- Arrange a Guided School Tour of the Capitol
- Learn about the Capitol. This site provides lesson plans about the U.S. Capitol, including lesson plans that can be used during a visit to the Capitol.
Resources for Educators
- Lesson Plans on Government, Law, and Politics from the Library of Congress Educational Outreach Division
- Lesson Plans from The National Archives Center for Legislative Archives. This site provides lesson plans about the National Archives’ work of collecting and maintaining historically valuable records of the federal government.
- Educational content from the Law Library of Congress blog. This includes research guides for U.S. law, articles on foreign law, and more.
Explore the United States Legal System
- Law Library of Congress Beginner's Guides for Legal Research. These guides focus on particular areas of law and provide resources to research that area of law.
- The First Constitution of the United States: The Articles of the Confederation
- You Have the Right to Remain Silent: Exploring the Primary Sources behind the Miranda v. Arizona U.S. Supreme Court Case. This exhibit provides documents related to the U.S. Supreme Court case concerning the right to remain silent during a police interrogation.
- School Desegregation for All Children – The Legacy of Méndez v. Westminster. This blog post describes an early school desegregation case filed in a California federal district court.
K-5 Resources
- Explore the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and more on Kid.gov's About Our Government Resources Page
- The Government Publishing Office - Ben's Guide to the United States Government. This site provides a fun, interactive environment for children ages 4-8, 9-13, or 14+ to learn about the operation of the United States government.
Educational Resources from the United States House of Representatives
- Kids in the House: Explore the Role of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Legislative Process, and House History. This site allows K-12 learners to explore how the U.S. House of Representatives works.
Explore the Legislative Process
- Congress.gov Legislative Process Videos. This site provides a series of short videos on the legislative process.
- How Our Laws Are Made - An Essay to aid Understanding of the Legislative Process. (67 pages, web-friendly and PDF versions). This site provides an in-depth explanation of the legislative process.
- Enactment of a Law -An Essay to aid Understanding of Legislative Branch Powers and Procedures, including Responsibilities beyond the Enactment of Legislation. (28 pages, web-friendly and PDF versions). This site provides an in-depth explanation of the legislative process behind the enactment of a law.
- Legislative Process Glossary - Brief explanations of Legislative Terms used throughout Congress.gov. This glossary defines the terms that you may encounter when researching the legislative process.
- The Legislative Process from The House of Representatives. This site provides a brief, text based overview of the legislative process.
- Learning About the Legislative Process from The Senate. This site provides an explanation of the process behind the enactment of a law, Senate processes, executive nominations, Senate treaty powers, as well as the process of filibuster and cloture.
Explore United States History through Congressional Documents
- Read about United States History from the perspective of Congress using Century of Lawmaking's Debates of Congress. This site provides Congressional documents from the first one-hundred years of the nation. This site contains primary documents from the Constitutional Convention and the United States Civil War.
Explore our Founding Documents
- The Constitution Student Discovery Set, an iBook fromthe Library of Congress. This iBook follows many of the drafts and debates that brought the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights into being, including newspaper articles and notes by the framers.
- Learn about the Constitutional Convention and the Ratification Debates on Century of Lawmaking. This site is helpful for researching the debates surrounding the ratification of the United States Constitution.
- Read about Constitutional Provisions and the leading U.S. Supreme Court Decisions that Interpret them with the Constitution Annotated. This is a great resource for researching the United States Constitution and the leading U.S. Supreme Court that have interpreted it. This is written at a level that is accessible to high school aged students.