I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1455 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 1, 2021 

Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida (for herself, Ms. SPEIER, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Ms. 

ESCOBAR, and Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on House 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: 

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

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

7 working-class neighborhood. 


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1 (2) Ginsburg graduated from Cornell University 

2 in 1954, finishing first in her class. 

3 (3) Ginsburg enrolled at Harvard Law School 

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

5 8 other women. 

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

7 female member of the prestigious legal journal, the 

8 Harvard Law Review. She also cared for her hus9 band, Martin Ginsburg, who had been diagnosed 

10 with cancer, and their young daughter. 

11 (5) Ginsburg finished her legal education at Co12 lumbia Law School, where she graduated first in her 

13 class in 1959. 

14 (6) Ginsburg taught at Rutgers University Law 

15 School from 1963 to 1972 and at Columbia Law 

16 School from 1972 to 1980, where she became the 

17 school’s first female tenured professor. 

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

19 director of the Women’s Rights Project of the Amer20 ican Civil Liberties Union. In this position, she led 

21 the fight against gender discrimination and success22 fully argued 6 landmark cases before the Supreme 

23 Court of the United States (in this section referred 

24 to as the ‘‘Supreme Court’’). 


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1 (8) Ginsburg won 5 cases on gender discrimina2 tion before the Supreme Court, including the case 

3 Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, which involved a portion 

4 of the Social Security Act that favored women over 

5 men, because the Act granted certain benefits to 

6 widows, but not widowers. 

7 (9) In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed 

8 Ginsburg to the United States Court of Appeals for 

9 the District of Columbia Circuit. 

10 (10) In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed 

11 Ginsburg to the Supreme Court to fill the seat va12 cated by Associate Justice Byron White. 

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

14 Ginsburg’s nomination to the Supreme Court by a 

15 96 to 3 vote. 

16 (12) Ginsburg became the second female justice 

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

18 Jewish female justice to serve on the Supreme 

19 Court. 

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

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

22 rights of workers, and the separation of church and 

23 State. 

24 (14) In 1996, Ginsburg wrote the Supreme 

25 Court’s landmark decision in United States v. VirVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:56 Apr 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1455.IH H1455

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1 ginia, which held that the State-supported Virginia 

2 Military Institute could not refuse to admit women. 

3 (15) Despite her reputation for restrained writ4 ing, Ginsburg gathered considerable attention for 

5 her dissenting opinion in Bush v. Gore by subtly 

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

7 a significant departure from the traditional ‘‘respect8 fully dissent’’. 

9 (16) Ginsburg famously dissented in Ledbetter 

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

11 a female worker being paid significantly less than 

12 males with her same qualifications, sued under title 

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

14 2000e et seq.), but was denied relief under a statute 

15 of limitation issue. Ginsburg broke with tradition 

16 and wrote a high colloquial version of her dissent to 

17 read from the bench. In her dissent, she also called 

18 for Congress to undo this improper interpretation of 

19 the law. 

20 (17) Ginsburg’s impactful dissent in Ledbetter 

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

22 passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 

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

24 first piece of legislation signed by President Barack 

25 Obama. 


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

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

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

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

5 when it has worked and is continuing to work to 

6 stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away 

7 your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not 

8 getting wet.’’. 

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

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

11 was undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, 

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

13 husband passed away in 2010. 

14 SEC. 2. MONUMENT HONORING JUSTICE RUTH BADER 

15 GINSBURG. 

16 (a) OBTAINING OF MONUMENT.— 

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

18 the date of the enactment of this Act, and in con19 sultation with the Committee on House Administra20 tion of the House of Representatives and the Com21 mittee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, 

22 the Joint Committee on the Library shall enter into 

23 an agreement to obtain a monument honoring Asso24 ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 

25 States Ruth Bader Ginsburg under such terms and 


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1 conditions as the Joint Committee considers appro2 priate, consistent with applicable law. 

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

4 make the monument obtained under paragraph (1), 

5 the Joint Committee on the Library shall make the 

6 announcement available to and consider artists from 

7 underrepresented demographic groups. 

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

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

10 shall permanently install the monument obtained under 

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

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

13 title 40, United States Code. 

14 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

15 are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are nec16 essary to carry out this Act. Amounts appropriated pursu17 ant to this subsection shall remain available until ex18 pended. 

Æ 


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