Independence Day and Fireworks

And though some people tried to fight it

Well, a committee was formed to write it:

Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston 

John Adams, Roger Sherman, Thomas Jefferson

They got it done (Oh yes they did!)

The Declaration, uh-huh-huh

The Declaration of Independence (Oh yeah!)

In seventeen hundred seventy six (Right on!)

The Continental Congress said that we were free (We're free!)

Said we had the right of life and liberty

...And the pursuit of happiness!

~Fireworks

Schoolhouse Rock

One of my favorite holidays is Independence Day, aka "The Fourth of July." A few years ago, I wrote about this summer holiday. To see that post, click here: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Now that you're up to speed on how we came to celebrate the Fourth of July (despite John Adams' belief that the celebration should have been on July 2nd), let's look at some of the members of the Continental Congress:

• There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. 
• Almost one-half of the signers (25) were lawyers.
• There were five delegates on the drafting committee--Benjamin Franklin, John Adams,
• Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson was the primary writer, and it took him 17 days to write the Declaration. 
• Although Robert Livingston, who represented New York, was on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, he was recalled by his state before he could sign the document. 
• Seven of the signers were 60 or older.
• The oldest signer was Benjamin Franklin (age 70), who represented Pennsylvania.
• Thirteen of the signers were 35 or younger.
• The youngest signer was Edward Rutledge (age 26), a lawyer from South Carolina.
• Two future U.S. Presidents signed the Declaration--John Adams (the second president) and Thomas Jefferson (the third president). Ironically, both died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1826).
• John Hancock was president of the Continental Congress when independence was declared. His signature is the largest on the Declaration of Independence.
• The state with the fewest signers was Rhode Island with just two--Stephen Hopkins and William Ellery.
• Pennsylvania had nine signers, the most of any state.
• Charles Carroll, who represented Maryland, was the last surviving signer of the Declaration.
• He died in 1832 at the age of 95. 

For more stats on the Declaration, see Facts for Features Fourth of July.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post was the first newspaper to print the Declaration on July 6, 1776.

On July 4, 1778, George Washington helped U.S. troops celebrate by allowing them a double ration of rum.

In 1781, Massachusetts became the first state to make July 4th a state holiday.

The oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration began in 1785 in Bristol, Rhode Island.

On July 4, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson publicly announced the completion of the Louisiana Purchase, which cost $15 million and doubled the size of the United States.

The first Fourth of July celebration west of the Mississippi took place on July 4, 1804. Lewis and Clark’s expedition drank whiskey, fired a cannon, and named a creek in what is now Kansas as Independence Creek.

Descendants of people who signed the Declaration of Independence tap the Liberty Bell, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 13 times at 2 p.m. eastern time every 4th of July to honor the 13 original states.

Check out this poster with more information on the holiday: 4th of July By the Numbers

Fireworks

The very first 4th of July fireworks show took place in Philadelphia in 1777. Fireworks, canons, and bells all went off to honor the 13 original states. They also had a dinner and a parade to celebrate.

Americans spend over $1 billion on fireworks every year, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association, and the numbers continue to go up every year. The biggest celebration is the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks show, which takes over 8,000 hours to prepare.

For information on what individual states allow, see the American Pyrotechnics Association's Directory of State Laws.

You Don't Need a Library Card for These Libraries

Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham,

Can you tell me where he's gone?

He freed a lotta people,
but it seems the good die young

But I just looked around and he's gone.

Has anybody here seen my old friend John,

Can you tell me where he's gone?

He freed a lotta people,
but it seems the good die young

But I just looked around and he's gone.

~Abraham, Martin and John
Dion DiMucci

As a teenager in Springfield, Illinois, I spent many hours at the Lincoln Library--it was the public library, which was located next to my dad's office in the Municipal Building. So, when I heard that the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum was being built in my hometown, I was a little confused. Were they building a new public library? No. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum would document the life of President Abraham Lincoln. Springfield's public library is still called Lincoln Library.

Abe is not the only U.S. President to have a library dedicated to him. In fact, out of 44 past Presidents, 26 have libraries, with another in the works. Every President from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush has a Presidential Library administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries, which is a part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). President Obama's library will be handled a little differently (more about that later).

Like Abraham Lincoln, Presidents who preceded Herbert Hoover do not have Presidential Libraries administered by the NARA. Lincoln is one of 13 Presidents (see table below) who have libraries that are not sanctioned and maintained by the NARA. Some are managed by private foundations. Some are managed by state governments. For the first father-son combination of Presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, the library is part of the the National Park Service at Adams National Historical Park.

Whether under the purview of NARA or not, these are not traditional libraries. They are repositories for preserving and making accessible the papers, records, and other historical materials of U.S. Presidents. The museum portion of a Presidential Library is open to the general public, and provides a way for everyone to learn more about a particular President.

If you're traveling this summer, you might want to check out one or more of the Presidential Libraries and Museums listed below. I highly recommend the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.

The Presidential Library System (Hoover to present)

Before the advent of the Presidential Library system, Presidents or their heirs often dispersed Presidential papers at the end of the administration. Though many pre-Hoover collections now reside in the Library of Congress, others are split among other libraries, historical societies, and private collections. Unfortunately, many materials have been lost or deliberately destroyed.

The Presidential Library system formally began in 1939, when President Franklin Roosevelt donated his personal and Presidential papers to the Federal Government. At the same time, Roosevelt pledged part of his estate at Hyde Park to the United States, and friends of the President formed a nonprofit corporation to raise funds for the construction of the library and museum building. 

Roosevelt's decision stemmed from a belief that Presidential papers are an important part of the national heritage and should be accessible to the public. He asked the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to take custody of his papers and other historical materials and to administer his library.

In 1950, Harry S. Truman decided that he also would build a library to house his Presidential papers and helped to spur congressional action. In 1955, Congress passed the Presidential Libraries Act, establishing a system of privately erected and federally maintained libraries. The Act encouraged other Presidents to donate their historical materials to the government and ensured the preservation of Presidential papers and their availability to the American people.

Until 1978, Presidents, scholars, and legal professionals believed that the records created by the President or his staff while in office remained the personal property of the President and were his to take with him when he left office. The first Presidential libraries were built on this concept. NARA successfully persuaded Presidents to donate their historical materials to the Government for housing in a Presidential library managed by NARA.

The Presidential Records Act of 1978 established that the Presidential records that document the constitutional, statutory, and ceremonial duties of the President are the property of the United States Government. After the President leaves office, the Archivist of the United States assumes custody of the records. The Act allowed for the continuation of Presidential Libraries as the repository for Presidential records.

The Presidential Libraries Act of 1986 also made significant changes to Presidential libraries, requiring private endowments linked to the size of the facility. NARA uses these endowments to offset a portion of the maintenance costs for the library.

For more information on the Presidential Libraries System, see Frequently Asked Questions.

When a President Leaves Office

For the Presidents through President George W. Bush, new libraries followed the model of the Roosevelt Library. The libraries are constructed with private and other non-federal funds. A private, nonprofit organization is formed to coordinate fundraising and construction of the library-museum and to provide support for programs. Meanwhile, NARA establishes a Presidential project until a new Presidential Library is built. Once completed, the private organization turned over the libraries to the NARA to operate and maintain.

The Obama Library

The Obama library will follow a different model. NARA will not administer a museum or a traditional "Presidential Library" building. Instead records from Barack Obama's presidency will be digitized to the greatest extent possible, making Presidential records available to researchers regardless of location. NARA will still be responsible for the records and storing the original documents, but the new facility in Chicago will be run by the Obama Foundation and The University of Chicago. The Obama Presidential Center will be a privately operated, non-federal organization located in Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago. 

Presidential Library Locations

No.	President	Library Name and Operator	Location
1	George Washington	Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon	Mount Vernon, Virginia
2	John Adams	Stone Library at Adams National Historical Park	Quincy, Massachusetts
3	Thomas Jefferson	Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Kenwood	Charlottesville, Virginia
5	James Monroe	James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library	Fredericksburg, Virginia
6	John Quincy Adams	Stone Library at Adams National Historical Park	Quincy, Massachusetts
16	Abraham Lincoln	Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum	Springfield, Illinois
17	Andrew Johnson	President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library	Tusculum, Tennessee
18	Ulysses S. Grant	Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library	Starkville, Mississippi
19	Rutherford B. Hayes	Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center	Fremont, Ohio
20	James Garfield	James A. Garfield National Historic Site	Mentor, Ohio
25	William McKinley	William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum	Canton, Ohio
28	Woodrow Wilson	Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library	Staunton, Virginia
30	Calvin Collidge	Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum	Northhampton, Massachusetts
31	Herbert Hoover	Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum	West Branch, Iowa
32	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum	Hyde Park, New York
33	Harry S. Truman	Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum	Independence, Missouri
34	Dwight Eisenhower	Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum	Abilene, Kansas
35	John F. Kennedy	John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum	Boston, Massachusetts
36	Lyndon B. Johnson	Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum	Austin, Texas
37	Richard M. Nixon	Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum	Yorba Linda, California
38	Gerald Ford	Gerald R. Ford Museum Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library	Grand Rapids, Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan
39	Jimmy Carter	Jimmy Carter Library and Museum	Atlanta, Georgia
40	Ronald Reagan	Ronald Reagan Presidential Library	Simi Valley, California
41	George H.W. Bush	George Bush Presidential Library & Museum	College Station, Texas
42	Bill Clinton	William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park	Little Rock, Arkansas
43	George W. Bush	George W. Bush Presidential Center	Dallas, Texas
44	Barack Obama	Barack Obama Presidential Center	Chicago, Illinois

Wayfair, You've Got to Charge Tax on Me

Oh, these are my girls, hello girls

Hello, Max, nice outfit

There are many different ways we pay what we owe

Ladies if you'll form a lovely tableau

Income, property, sales, utility, candy bars in my show

Licenses for dogs and cats, and that's not all you know

Out of almost every dollar a person can make

City, State and Federal governments take . . .

Take what?

What they think is fair you giving your share

Now and then there's a break

~Tax Man Max

School House Rock

Back about 10-15 years ago, when the Internet was young and online shopping was new, it didn't take long for people to realize that if you bought online, you wouldn't be charged sales tax. By the same token, state revenue departments realized that goods that were purchased from out-of-state vendors and not taxed affected the states' ability to raise money for state services. 

Lawyers who specialize in state taxation have been debating whether an out-of-state seller can be held responsible for collecting sales taxes on purchases made within a state for years. It really wasn't a matter of if the Supreme Court would take on this issue, but when.

The U.S. Supreme Court and the Constitution

For a case to get to the U.S. Supreme Court, it must have already been considered by lower courts. Lower courts may include Federal Courts of Appeal or State Supreme Courts. That's an over-simplification, but it works for our purposes. 

Once the parties have gone through the required lower courts, they may file a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. Don't worry about the Latin, just know that the losing party asks the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court is the final authority in matters involving interpretation of the U.S Constitution. In Article I, Section 8, Clause 3, the Constitution grants Congress the power “[t]o regulate Commerce . . . among the several States.”  This is known as the Commerce Clause.

The Commerce Clause has been interpreted over the years to mark the boundaries of a state's authority to regulate interstate commerce. This means that state regulations may not discriminate against interstate commerce, and states may not impose undue burdens on interstate commerce. The Due Process Clause is also in play. Basically, due process requires that the government can't deny an individual the opportunity to have a hearing.

Because the Supreme Court is the final authority on the Constitution, other U.S. courts (whether state or federal) must follow its decisions. The Supreme Court generally must follow its own decisions, but there are occasions when the Supreme Court rules that they got it wrong or that the previous decision doesn't work anymore.

Sales Tax

Before there was online shopping, there was catalog and mail order shopping. The U.S. Supreme Court last considered whether an out-of-state seller is liable for the collection and remittance of state sales tax to the state where the buyer is located in 1992. In that case, Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, the Court held that the key for answering this question depended on whether the seller has a physical presence in the buyer's state. Further, the mere shipment of goods into the buyer's state, following an order from a catalog, did not constitute physical presence. Quill followed a 1967 case, National Bellas Hess, Inc. v. Department of Revenue of Ill.

As I mentioned above, lawyers who specialize in state taxation have been waiting for the Court to accept a case that could revisit the state taxation issue in light of the increase in online shopping. Finally, the Court accepted a case involving online retailers Wayfair, Overstock.com and Newegg Inc.

In South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., the Court overruled Quill and National Bellas Hess. The Wayfair  Court found that a retailer could have nexus with a state without having a physical presence. Thus, states can now require online retailers to collect taxes on online purchases, whether or not the retailer has any physical  connection to the state.

What the Wayfair Decision Means

More than most Supreme Court decisions, this ruling will impact just about everyone.

• It "levels the playing field" for brick-and-mortar retailers. In other words, a customer will be charged tax whether they purchase that book from Barnes and Noble or order it from amazon.com. Actually, Amazon is already collecting taxes on online purchases, but the example illustrates my point.
• States will now be able to collect tax from their residents who purchase items online, whether or not the retailer has a store, an office, or any other type of physical presence in the state. States have been scrambling to come up with ways to tax online sales, since they were losing revenue.
• In the short-term, stocks of online retailers, such as Amazon, Etsy, Overstock and Wayfair are also taking a hit, but within a few hours of the decision, stock prices for these companies seem to be creeping up again.
• For companies that use third-party online sellers (like Amazon), the ruling likely will open the door for retailers to be responsible for collecting tax from those third parties, too. This is already required in Washington and Pennsylvania.

Dissent

Justice Kennedy wrote the opinion for the majority. Justices Thomas, Ginsburg, Alito and  Gorsuch joined in the majority opinion. Chief Justice Roberts wrote a dissent, which Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan joined. However, the dissent didn't disagree with the result as much as they thought it was a matter for Congress to settle.

They say that the only things that are certain are death and taxes. I guess that makes free shipping all the more important!

Precious Cargo

Photo Credit: T. Schlangen 2018 

If we took a holiday

Took some time to celebrate

Just one day out of life

It would be

It would be so nice

Everybody spread the word

We're gonna have a celebration

All across the world

In every nation

It's time for the good times

Forget about the bad times

One day to come together

To release the pressure

We need a holiday

If we took a holiday

Took some time to celebrate

Just one day out of life

It would be

It would be so nice

~Holiday
Madonna

It's summer vacation time! Time for excursions to the beach, amusement parks, national parks, historic sites and to see family. While some will be taking road trips, many others will be flying. If you're traveling with a child under the age of two on an airplane, chances are that the child will be sitting on your lap unless you purchase a ticket for your child. Or at least that's the way it should work. In an incident last summer, a flight attendant insisted that the mother of a toddler hold her child even though she had purchased a ticket for the child. Just in the last couple days, another mother and child have been in the news as a flight attendant with the same airline insisted that a mother traveling with her 8-month-old daughter place the car seat so that the child was facing forward, which is not recommended for children weighing less than 35 pounds.

Child's Seat Given to Adult Passenger

In the first incident, a woman traveling with her two-year-old son was flying from Hawaii to Boston. They boarded a plane for the last leg in Houston and found their seats. According to the mother, a flight attendant came to check if the child was present before a standby passenger showed up with a ticket corresponding to the toddler's seat number. When the mother alerted a flight attendant, she was told that the flight was full. The mother said that she continued the flight with her son on her lap, because she was afraid of a physical confrontation (as was depicted by the infamous video showing a doctor being dragged down the aisle of a plane) if she spoke up further.

The airline indicated that it had "inaccurately scanned the boarding pass of [the child]. As a result, [his] seat appeared to be not checked in, and [United] released his seat to another customer and [the mother] held her son for the flight."

Forbes Magazine reported that, according to an FAA spokesperson, "the FAA will work with [the airline] to investigate the facts of the event and determine if a violation occurred." That's the rub--Federal Aviation Regulations specify that during the takeoff, in flight, and upon landing, there must be available to each passenger who has reached his or her second birthday an approved seat or berth and an approved safety belt. In this case, the child was 27 months old (according to his mother, and there's no reason to doubt that she knows her son's age). Consequently, if a 27-month-old child was not properly restrained in his own seat, the airline could be subject to a significant fine.

Beyond the regulations, however, there is a basic safety issue at work. Although the regulations permit children under two-years-old to fly on a parent's lap, the FAA acknowledges that the safest place for your child on an airplane is in a government-approved child safety restraint system (CRS) or device (i.e., a car seat). The agency explains that a parent's arms aren't capable of holding a child securely, especially during unexpected turbulence.

Improperly Installed Car Seat

Just as in a car, the CRS must be properly installed. In the most recent incident making the news, a mother flying home to California from Denver with her 8-month-old daughter, reports that she was told by an airline employee to install her daughter's CRS so that her daughter was facing forward. The mother said she had researched everything, and she knew that the CRS should be facing backward. A baby's neck isn't strong enough to withstand the force of bumps or jolts. That's the reason that CRSs should face backward in cars, too.

The mother initially placed the seat facing backward, as suggested for children under two. However, an airline employee told her the plane would not take off until she turned the CRS around. The mother says she felt like she was pressured to turn the seat facing forward, because she knew they would be kicked off the plane if she didn't comply. When the plane encountered turbulence, the mother said she held her child's head back to the car seat to protect her.

About 20 minutes before landing, the mother said that a flight attendant reviewed the policy and let her fix the seat. The airline has acknowledged the mistake and apologized.

FAA Recommendations vs. Regulations

In 1989, a United Airlines jet crashed in Sioux City, Iowa. One of the flight attendants from that flight wants the FAA to require all children to be belted into seats on commercial airliners. She recalls telling the parents of the four lap babies to put them on the floor and hold them. Afterwards, she encountered one of the mothers who said, "you told me to put my baby on the floor and he would be ok, and now he's gone." More than 25 years later, she continues to lobby for children under the age of two to be belted into a CRS. 

Still, the agency is not likely to change its regulations anytime soon. In August 2005, the FAA announced that it would not mandate the use of child safety seats on airplanes because of the increased safety risk to families. Huh??? The agency said its analysis showed that, if forced to purchase an extra airline ticket, families might choose to drive, a statistically more dangerous way to travel. Statistically, the risk of fatalities and injuries is significantly greater on highways, it said.

In May 2012, in preparation for the summer travel season, the FAA launched an education campaign to help parents make informed choices about their child's safety when they fly. They developed a new website that included tips and a video demonstration on how to properly install a child safety seat on an airplane.

Do an internet search, and it's easy to find incidents where children have been saved by being in a CRS and incidents where a parent was unable to hold onto his or her child. Tests have been conducted to demonstrate the inability of parents to hold onto children. It's sobering, particularly when you don't have the money to pay for an extra ticket. It's been more than 19 years since I had a child under the age of two. I wasn't aware of the dangers when my first daughter was under two, but with my younger daughter, I would check to see if there were empty seats on the flight and ask if we could use the car seat. After all, we needed to travel with the car seat anyway. A couple times, I was able to do it. And, if not, I could gate-check the car seat. 

For more information, see the car seat blog: Airplanes, Carseats, and Kids—What You Need to Know Pt. 1 and Airplanes, Carseats, and Kids—What You Need to Know Pt. 2.

The safest way to fly with a child is to purchase a seat for them, regardless of age. I remember being glad when each of my children hit their second birthday because I no longer had wrestle with the question of whether to purchase a ticket or gamble with their safety.