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[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 5229 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.5229

                    One Hundred Seventeenth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America

                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

           Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
          the third day of January, two thousand and twenty two

                                 An Act

 
 To direct the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library to remove the 
   bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the 
 Capitol and to obtain a bust of Thurgood Marshall for installation in 
     the Capitol or on the Capitol Grounds, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. REPLACEMENT OF BUST OF ROGER BROOKE TANEY WITH BUST OF 
THURGOOD MARSHALL.
    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
        (1) While sitting in the Capitol, the Supreme Court issued the 
    infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision on March 6, 1857. Written 
    by Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, whose bust sits inside the 
    entrance to the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol, this 
    opinion declared that African Americans were not citizens of the 
    United States and could not sue in Federal courts. This decision 
    further declared that Congress did not have the authority to 
    prohibit slavery in the territories.
        (2) Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's authorship of Dred Scott 
    v. Sandford, the effects of which would only be overturned years 
    later by the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to 
    the Constitution of the United States, renders a bust of his 
    likeness unsuitable for the honor of display to the many visitors 
    to the Capitol.
        (3) As Frederick Douglass said of this decision in May 1857, 
    ``This infamous decision of the Slaveholding wing of the Supreme 
    Court maintains that slaves are within the contemplation of the 
    Constitution of the United States, property; that slaves are 
    property in the same sense that horses, sheep, and swine are 
    property; that the old doctrine that slavery is a creature of local 
    law is false; that the right of the slaveholder to his slave does 
    not depend upon the local law, but is secured wherever the 
    Constitution of the United States extends; that Congress has no 
    right to prohibit slavery anywhere; that slavery may go in safety 
    anywhere under the star-spangled banner; that colored persons of 
    African descent have no rights that white men are bound to respect; 
    that colored men of African descent are not and cannot be citizens 
    of the United States.''.
        (4) While the removal of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's 
    bust from the Capitol does not relieve the Congress of the 
    historical wrongs it committed to protect the institution of 
    slavery, it expresses Congress's recognition of one of the most 
    notorious wrongs to have ever taken place in one of its rooms, that 
    of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's Dred Scott v. Sandford 
    decision.
    (b) Removal of Bust of Roger Brooke Taney.--Not later than 45 days 
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Joint Committee of 
Congress on the Library (referred to in this Act as the ``Joint 
Committee'') shall remove from public display the bust of Roger Brooke 
Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the Capitol and the plinth 
upon which the bust is placed. The bust and plinth shall remain in the 
custody of the Senate Curator.
    (c) Bust of Thurgood Marshall.--
        (1) Obtaining bust.--Not later than 2 years after the date of 
    enactment of this Act, the Joint Committee shall enter into an 
    agreement to obtain a bust of Thurgood Marshall, under such terms 
    and conditions as the Joint Committee considers appropriate and 
    consistent with applicable law.
        (2) Placement.--
            (A) In general.--The Architect of the Capitol, under the 
        direction of the Joint Committee, shall permanently install the 
        bust obtained under paragraph (1) in a prominent location in 
        the Capitol or on the United States Capitol Grounds, as 
        described in section 5102 of title 40, United States Code.
            (B) Priority for location.--In determining the location for 
        the permanent installation of the bust obtained under paragraph 
        (1), the Joint Committee shall give priority to identifying an 
        appropriate location near the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the 
        Capitol.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.
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