II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 514 

To obtain and direct the placement in the Capitol or on the Capitol Grounds 

of a monument to honor Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of 

the United States Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 1, 2021 

Ms. KLOBUCHAR (for herself, Ms. SMITH, Mr. MERKLEY, Ms. WARREN, Mr. 

DURBIN, Mr. HEINRICH, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. 

BLUMENTHAL, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, Ms. HIRONO, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Ms. 

DUCKWORTH, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. MENENDEZ, and Ms. ROSEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration 

A BILL 

To obtain and direct the placement in the Capitol or on 

the Capitol Grounds of a monument to honor Associate 

Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ruth 

Bader Ginsburg. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in 1933 in 

2 Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in a low-income, 

3 working-class neighborhood. 

4 (2) Ginsburg graduated from Cornell University 

5 in 1954, finishing first in her class. 

6 (3) Ginsburg enrolled at Harvard Law School 

7 in 1956, entering into a class of 552 men and only 

8 8 other women. 

9 (4) As a law student, Ginsburg became the first 

10 female member of the prestigious legal journal, the 

11 Harvard Law Review. She also cared for her hus12 band, Martin Ginsburg, who had been diagnosed 

13 with cancer, and their young daughter. 

14 (5) Ginsburg finished her legal education at Co15 lumbia Law School, where she graduated first in her 

16 class in 1959. 

17 (6) Ginsburg taught at Rutgers University Law 

18 School from 1963 to 1972 and at Columbia Law 

19 School from 1972 to 1980, where she became the 

20 school’s first female tenured professor. 

21 (7) During the 1970s, Ginsburg served as the 

22 director of the Women’s Rights Project of the Amer23 ican Civil Liberties Union. In this position, she led 

24 the fight against gender discrimination and success25 fully argued 6 landmark cases before the Supreme 


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1 Court of the United States (in this section referred 

2 to as the ‘‘Supreme Court’’). 

3 (8) Ginsburg won 5 cases on gender discrimina4 tion before the Supreme Court, including the case 

5 Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, which involved a portion 

6 of the Social Security Act that favored women over 

7 men, because the Act granted certain benefits to 

8 widows, but not widowers. 

9 (9) In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed 

10 Ginsburg to the United States Court of Appeals for 

11 the District of Columbia Circuit. 

12 (10) In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed 

13 Ginsburg to the Supreme Court to fill the seat va14 cated by Associate Justice Byron White. 

15 (11) On August 3, 1993, the Senate confirmed 

16 Ginsburg’s nomination to the Supreme Court by a 

17 96 to 3 vote. 

18 (12) Ginsburg became the second female justice 

19 to serve on the Supreme Court as well as the first 

20 Jewish female justice to serve on the Supreme 

21 Court. 

22 (13) As a justice, Ginsburg presented a strong 

23 voice in favor of gender equality, voting rights, the 

24 rights of workers, and the separation of church and 

25 state. 


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1 (14) In 1996, Ginsburg wrote the Supreme 

2 Court’s landmark decision in United States v. Vir3 ginia, which held that the State-supported Virginia 

4 Military Institute could not refuse to admit women. 

5 (15) Despite her reputation for restrained writ6 ing, Ginsburg gathered considerable attention for 

7 her dissenting opinion in Bush v. Gore by subtly 

8 concluding her decision with the words, ‘‘I dissent’’, 

9 a significant departure from the traditional ‘‘respect10 fully dissent’’. 

11 (16) Ginsburg famously dissented in Ledbetter 

12 v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., where the plaintiff, 

13 a female worker being paid significantly less than 

14 males with her same qualifications, sued under title 

15 VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 

16 2000e et seq.), but was denied relief under a statute 

17 of limitation issue. Ginsburg broke with tradition 

18 and wrote a highly colloquial version of her dissent 

19 to read from the bench. In her dissent, she also 

20 called for Congress to undo this improper interpreta21 tion of the law. 

22 (17) Ginsburg’s impactful dissent in Ledbetter 

23 v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. led to the successful 

24 passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 

25 (Public Law 111–2; 123 Stat. 5), which was the 


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1 first piece of legislation signed by President Barack 

2 Obama. 

3 (18) In 2013, when the Supreme Court ruled in 

4 a 5–4 decision in Shelby County v. Holder to gut the 

5 Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et 

6 seq.), Ginsburg wrote, ‘‘Throwing out preclearance 

7 when it has worked and is continuing to work to 

8 stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away 

9 your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not 

10 getting wet.’’. 

11 (19) Until the 2018 term, Ginsburg had not 

12 missed a day of oral arguments, not even when she 

13 was undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, 

14 after surgery for colon cancer, or the day after her 

15 husband passed away in 2010. 

16 SEC. 2. MONUMENT HONORING JUSTICE RUTH BADER 

17 GINSBURG. 

18 (a) OBTAINING OF MONUMENT.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after 

20 the date of the enactment of this Act, and in con21 sultation with the Committee on House Administra22 tion of the House of Representatives and the Com23 mittee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, 

24 the Joint Committee on the Library shall enter into 

25 an agreement to obtain a monument honoring AssoVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:37 Apr 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S514.IS S514

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1 ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 

2 States Ruth Bader Ginsburg under such terms and 

3 conditions as the Joint Committee considers appro4 priate, consistent with applicable law. 

5 (2) CONSIDERATION.—In selecting an artist to 

6 make the monument obtained under paragraph (1), 

7 the Joint Committee on the Library shall make the 

8 announcement available to and consider artists from 

9 underrepresented demographic groups. 

10 (b) INSTALLATION.—The Architect of the Capitol, 

11 under the direction of the Joint Committee on the Library, 

12 shall permanently install the monument obtained under 

13 subsection (a) in a prominent location in the Capitol or 

14 on the Capitol Grounds, as described in section 5102 of 

15 title 40, United States Code. 

16 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

17 are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are nec18 essary to carry out this Act. Amounts appropriated pursu19 ant to this subsection shall remain available until ex20 pended. 

Æ 


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