Today is our second day in DC, and I cannot believe how much we have accomplished in just two days! It seems like forever ago that we were meeting at the gate at DFW airport waiting to board our plane and begin this journey. The first day we arrived, we made our way to the Library of Congress for the first time. Our first stop was the Madison Building where we will be spending the majority of our week carefully analyzing the papers of the Justices in the Manuscript Reading room. Upon our arrival at the Madison Building, we received our official identification cards to access the Manuscript Reading Room. Then, we decided to explore both the Madison Building and the Jefferson Building. Once we arrived at the Jefferson Building, we entered the main reading room. It takes a few minutes to fully absorb the beauty of the place. The intricate design of the building itself is a work of art. However, the plethora of books on the shelves that surround the walls of the building were equally fascinating to see and explore. I began looking through the books and jotting down the names of titles that I would want to come back to read another day. Later that afternoon, we walked over to We the Pizza and had dinner, and then returned to the Comfort Inn Ballston to get some rest and prepare for the big day that awaited us in the morning.

Today in the Manuscript Reading room, I found myself both amazed and overwhelmed at the work we were doing.  It was humbling to think that we, as undergraduate students, would now be using the papers of the Justices to create knowledge and answer big research questions about developments in certain areas of the law. We were holding in our hands the papers that aided the Justices in making decisions that shaped people’s lives in the United States and changed history. I am excited to see how the papers will help me understand the story behind the Supreme Court’s opinions in my research area.