Verified metadata
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Evidence library
Sources carry different kinds of weight.
Primary documents, government statistics, research, advocacy, criticism, and journalism answer different questions. This library shows type, role, verification status, access date, and limitations.
Role is visible
Supporting, critical, contextual, historical, and methodological roles describe why an item is here.
Limits travel with the source
Population, period, method, legal posture, and scope constrain the claims a source can support.
Evidence library results
Showing 35 of 35 sources.
The Bill of Rights
National Archives and Records Administration
- Published
- Dec 15, 1791
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Historical, Contextual
The National Archives presentation and transcript of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution.
Limits: The document's text does not by itself explain modern incorporation, remedies, or the boundary between governmental and private conduct.
Health Insurance Coverage for the U.S. Population, 2024 to 2034
Jessica Hale. Congressional Budget Office
- Published
- Jun 18, 2024
- Accessed
- Aug 12, 2026
- Role
- Contextual, Methodological
A CBO presentation of baseline projections for health-insurance coverage by source and the uninsured population through 2034 under the laws and assumptions in effect for that baseline.
Limits: Baseline projections are conditional estimates, not guaranteed outcomes or an evaluation of one reform. Later legislation, administrative changes, economic conditions, and demographic revisions can change the results.
The Budgetary Effects of the Raise the Wage Act of 2021
Congressional Budget Office
- Published
- Feb 8, 2021
- Accessed
- Aug 12, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Critical, Methodological
CBO's budget and economic analysis of a specific 2021 bill to phase in a $15 federal minimum wage, including estimated effects on pay, employment, family income, prices, and federal programs.
Limits: The estimates apply to the bill, timetable, baseline, and modeling assumptions examined in 2021. They are not a universal estimate of every minimum-wage level or local labor market, and CBO reports substantial uncertainty.
Civil Rights Act (1964)
National Archives and Records Administration
- Published
- Jul 2, 1964
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Historical, Contextual, Supporting
The National Archives presentation and transcript of the 1964 statute addressing discrimination in public accommodations, education, federally assisted programs, employment, and other areas.
Limits: The statute has been amended and interpreted through later law and litigation; the historical transcript is not a complete current compliance guide.
National Health Expenditure Fact Sheet
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- Published
- Historical 2024 data and 2025–2034 projections
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Contextual, Methodological
Official national health-expenditure accounting and projections organized by payer, service category, sponsor, and other dimensions.
Limits: Aggregate expenditure accounts do not by themselves measure access, quality, affordability for particular households, or causal effects of a policy model.
Condition of Education 2025
National Center for Education Statistics. National Center for Education Statistics
- Published
- May 2026, NCES 2026-019
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Contextual, Methodological
The congressionally mandated annual statistical compendium covering education from prekindergarten through postsecondary study, labor-force outcomes, and international comparisons.
Limits: The compendium is descriptive and combines measures collected on different schedules; it does not establish that a single policy caused an observed trend.
Paid Family and Medical Leave in the United States
Sarah A. Donovan. Congressional Research Service, via Congress.gov
- Published
- Mar 26, 2025
- Accessed
- Aug 12, 2026
- Role
- Contextual, Methodological
A Congressional Research Service report describing federal law, employer benefits, state leave-insurance programs, research findings, international comparisons, and recent federal proposals for paid family and medical leave.
Limits: The report is a policy overview rather than an endorsement or a causal evaluation of one national design. State programs and federal proposals can change after its March 2025 update.
The Effects of Rent Control Expansion on Tenants, Landlords, and Inequality: Evidence from San Francisco
Rebecca Diamond, Tim McQuade, Franklin Qian. American Economic Review
- Published
- American Economic Review 109(9), 2019
- Accessed
- Aug 12, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Critical, Methodological
A peer-reviewed study of San Francisco's 1994 rent-control expansion that examines effects on incumbent tenants, landlord responses, rental supply, and neighborhood change.
Limits: The study evaluates one city's policy expansion and institutional setting. Its tenant-stability and supply findings should not be assumed to apply unchanged to every rent-regulation design or housing market.
The Antitrust Laws
U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division
- Published
- Updated December 20, 2023
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Contextual
An official overview of the Sherman and Clayton Acts, including unlawful restraints, monopolization, tying, predatory pricing, and anticompetitive mergers.
Limits: The overview emphasizes enforcement concepts and examples; market definition, power, competitive effects, and remedies require case-specific analysis.
Minimum Wage Effects Across State Borders: Estimates Using Contiguous Counties
Arindrajit Dube, T. William Lester, Michael Reich. The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press
- Published
- Nov 1, 2010
- Accessed
- Aug 12, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Methodological
A peer-reviewed study comparing neighboring counties across state borders to estimate wage and employment effects of differing minimum-wage policies in restaurants and other low-wage sectors.
Limits: The study analyzes state-border variation from 1990 through 2006 and particular low-wage sectors. Its design does not directly estimate every later policy, a large nationwide change, or effects outside the studied labor markets.
Climate Change Indicators in the United States, Fifth Edition
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Published
- Jul 2, 2024
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Contextual, Methodological
A federal synthesis of observed indicators related to the causes and effects of climate change in the United States, with methods and supporting data.
Limits: An indicator report describes observed patterns and supporting science; it does not rank every mitigation or adaptation policy or settle local implementation choices.
Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act
U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
- Published
- Revised November 2023
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Contextual
An official overview of federal minimum-wage, overtime, recordkeeping, youth-employment, coverage, exemption, and enforcement rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Limits: The guide is general compliance assistance; state law may provide additional protections and specific disputes require current legal analysis.
Fact Sheet #28: The Family and Medical Leave Act
U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
- Published
- Revised March 2025
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Contextual
An official explanation of federal job-protected family and medical leave, including covered employers, employee eligibility, qualifying reasons, and enforcement.
Limits: The federal law is not a universal paid-leave program, contains eligibility and employer-coverage rules, and interacts with state law and workplace policies.
FDR and the Four Freedoms Speech
Franklin D. Roosevelt. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
- Published
- Jan 6, 1941
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Historical, Contextual
The presidential library's presentation of Roosevelt's 1941 annual message identifying freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
Limits: A wartime presidential address expresses political aims; it did not itself create enforceable legal rights or programs.
Fourteenth Amendment: Equal Protection and Other Rights
Constitution Annotated, Congress.gov
- Published
- Continuously updated congressional legal reference
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Contextual, Methodological
A congressional legal reference organizing the Fourteenth Amendment's citizenship, due process, equal protection, incorporation, and voting-rights doctrine.
Limits: This is a high-level entry point into a large body of doctrine; legal conclusions require attention to the specific issue, jurisdiction, and current cases.
Guide to Antitrust Laws
Federal Trade Commission
- Published
- Current agency guidance
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Contextual
An official guide to federal competition law, merger review, agreements among competitors, monopolization, and the roles of the federal antitrust agencies.
Limits: Agency guidance is general and does not resolve fact-specific liability or the empirical effects of every form of concentration.
Bringing Dark Patterns to Light
Federal Trade Commission
- Published
- September 2022
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Critical, Contextual
A staff report describing interface practices that can obscure, subvert, or impair consumer choice, including hidden terms, difficult cancellation, and designs that steer disclosure of personal information.
Limits: The report presents enforcement and policy analysis rather than a comprehensive prevalence study, and interface practices continue to evolve.
Consumer Spending during Unemployment: Positive and Normative Implications
Peter Ganong, Pascal Noel. American Economic Review
- Published
- American Economic Review 109(7), July 2019
- Accessed
- Aug 12, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Methodological
A peer-reviewed study using de-identified bank-account data to examine how household spending changes during unemployment and when unemployment-insurance benefits expire.
Limits: Administrative financial data offer detailed spending timing but do not represent every unemployed household or measure every dimension of well-being. The policy implications depend on behavioral and welfare assumptions described by the authors.
Freedom of Information Act: Actions Needed to Improve Agency Compliance with Proactive Disclosure Requirements
U.S. Government Accountability Office
- Published
- Mar 10, 2021
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Critical, Contextual, Supporting
A federal audit examining selected agencies' policies, tracking, reporting, and oversight for Freedom of Information Act proactive-disclosure requirements.
Limits: The audit studied selected agencies and a defined disclosure requirement; findings should not be generalized to every jurisdiction or all transparency systems.
K-12 Education: School Districts Need Better Information to Help Improve Access for People with Disabilities
U.S. Government Accountability Office
- Published
- Jun 30, 2020
- Accessed
- Aug 12, 2026
- Role
- Critical, Contextual, Methodological
A federal audit examining physical barriers in public-school facilities, district planning, and the technical assistance provided by the Departments of Justice and Education.
Limits: GAO combined a national district survey with visits to 55 schools in six states. Observed physical barriers do not by themselves establish a legal violation, and facility conditions may have changed since the fieldwork.
Unemployment Insurance: Transformation Needed to Address Program Design, Infrastructure, and Integrity Risks
U.S. Government Accountability Office
- Published
- Jun 7, 2022
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Critical, Contextual, Supporting
A federal audit report examining unemployment-insurance program design, state administration, information technology, equitable access, timeliness, and integrity risks.
Limits: The report focuses on unemployment insurance and lessons sharpened by the pandemic; not every finding transfers to other benefit systems or later reforms.
Worst Case Housing Needs: 2023 Report to Congress
Thyria A. Alvarez, Barry L. Steffen. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research
- Published
- Report accepted May 2023; posted September 21, 2023
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Contextual, Methodological
A congressionally directed analysis of severe rent burdens and severely inadequate housing among very-low-income renters who do not receive housing assistance.
Limits: The report uses a defined renter-need measure and 2021 survey data; it does not cover every housing problem or establish the effects of a particular remedy.
Final Plans for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963
Library of Congress
- Published
- Aug 28, 1963
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Historical, Contextual
A digitized printed program documenting the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and its combined civil-rights and economic-justice agenda.
Limits: The program records the event's stated plans and demands; it does not by itself capture the full movement, participant experience, or policy aftermath.
The Costs of a National Single-Payer Healthcare System
Charles Blahous. Mercatus Center at George Mason University
- Published
- Jul 30, 2018
- Accessed
- Aug 12, 2026
- Role
- Critical, Methodological
A working paper estimating federal fiscal effects and service-capacity pressures under the Medicare for All Act introduced in 2017, with particular attention to provider payments, utilization, and financing assumptions.
Limits: The analysis models one 2017 bill and depends on contestable assumptions about payment rates, utilization, savings, and implementation. It is a critical working paper from a market-oriented research center, not a consensus estimate for every universal-coverage pathway.
Health and Access to Care during the First 2 Years of the ACA Medicaid Expansions
Sarah Miller, Laura R. Wherry. New England Journal of Medicine
- Published
- Mar 9, 2017
- Accessed
- Aug 12, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Methodological
A peer-reviewed difference-in-differences study comparing insurance coverage, health-care use, affordability, and self-reported health among low-income adults in Medicaid-expansion and nonexpansion states.
Limits: The study covers the first two years of expansion, relies substantially on survey responses, and estimates policy associations under a quasi-experimental design rather than a randomized national experiment.
National Labor Relations Act (1935)
National Archives and Records Administration
- Published
- Jul 5, 1935
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Historical, Contextual, Supporting
The historical statute that created the National Labor Relations Board and established federal protections for organizing and collective bargaining in covered private-sector employment.
Limits: Coverage exclusions, later amendments, court decisions, and present enforcement practice require separate current research.
Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0)
Elham Tabassi. National Institute of Standards and Technology
- Published
- Jan 26, 2023
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Methodological, Supporting, Contextual
A voluntary, rights-preserving framework for governing, mapping, measuring, and managing risks from artificial-intelligence systems.
Limits: The framework is voluntary and non-sector-specific, is being revised, and does not by itself create legal duties or remedies.
The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, 2025
National Low Income Housing Coalition
- Published
- Mar 13, 2025
- Accessed
- Aug 12, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Contextual
An advocacy organization's national, state, and metropolitan-area analysis of rental homes affordable and available to households at several income levels.
Limits: The report comes from an organization that advocates for low-income housing policy. Its shortage measure addresses rental affordability and availability for defined income groups; it is not a causal evaluation of a particular policy response.
1944 State of the Union Address Text
Franklin D. Roosevelt. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
- Published
- Jan 11, 1944
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Historical, Contextual
The text of Roosevelt's 1944 annual message proposing an economic bill of rights concerned with work, food, housing, health, education, and security.
Limits: The address was a presidential proposal, not an enacted constitutional amendment, and its broad language does not settle institutional design.
Social Security Act (1935)
National Archives and Records Administration
- Published
- Aug 14, 1935
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Historical, Contextual, Supporting
The National Archives presentation and transcript of the 1935 statute establishing federal old-age benefits and a federal-state structure for unemployment compensation and public assistance.
Limits: The original law excluded or treated groups differently and has been repeatedly amended; it is not a statement of current eligibility or benefit rules.
Social Security Program Data
Social Security Administration, Office of the Chief Actuary
- Published
- Continuously updated program data
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Supporting, Contextual, Methodological
Official benefit and trust-fund data for the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance programs.
Limits: Program aggregates require separate distributional and policy analysis; the data portal is not a recommendation for any specific solvency change.
The Square Deal
Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Historical, Contextual
A documented overview of Roosevelt's use of the Square Deal idea and its relationship to fair dealing, public authority, and the reform politics of his era.
Limits: This is an institutional historical overview rather than a complete primary-source edition or a full assessment of the era's exclusions.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
United Nations
- Published
- Dec 10, 1948
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Historical, Contextual, Supporting
The General Assembly declaration setting out a common standard of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights and freedoms.
Limits: The declaration is an international norm and historical reference; it is not by itself a directly enforceable domestic claim in United States courts.
Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation
Congress.gov, Library of Congress
- Published
- Constitutional text with congressional annotations
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Historical, Contextual
The constitutional text, amendments, and links to the congressionally prepared Constitution Annotated.
Limits: The constitutional text must be read with case law and doctrine; this entry is not a substitute for legal advice or a current issue-specific survey.
Voting Rights Act (1965)
National Archives and Records Administration
- Published
- Aug 6, 1965
- Accessed
- Aug 11, 2026
- Role
- Historical, Contextual, Supporting
The National Archives presentation and transcript of the federal statute enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment and addressing discriminatory voting practices.
Limits: The law has been amended and materially affected by later court decisions; a current voting-law analysis must examine those developments.