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[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3294 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.3294

                    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 obtain and direct the placement in the Capitol or on the Capitol 
 Grounds of a statue to honor Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 the United States Sandra Day O'Connor and a statue to honor Associate 
 Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
    (a) Sandra Day O'Connor.--Congress finds the following:
        (1) Sandra Day O'Connor was born in 1930 in El Paso, Texas, and 
    spent her childhood on her family's isolated Arizona cattle ranch. 
    She lived with her grandmother in El Paso during the school year, 
    away from her home and parents.
        (2) O'Connor matriculated to Stanford University at the age of 
    16, and combined her undergraduate and law school curricula, 
    graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics and a law degree 
    in just 6 years. She was third in her law school class, behind 
    William Rehnquist, her future colleague on the Supreme Court of the 
    United States (in this section referred to as the ``Supreme 
    Court'').
        (3) Despite her qualifications, O'Connor could not find work as 
    an attorney because of bias against women in the law. She ended up 
    negotiating for an unpaid position in the San Mateo County District 
    Attorney's office at a shared desk, while her husband, John, 
    finished at Stanford Law School 1 year later.
        (4) O'Connor traveled to Frankfurt, Germany, in 1954 with her 
    husband John, who had joined the United States Army Judge Advocate 
    General's Corps, where she was able to find work as a civilian 
    attorney with the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. In 1957, 
    O'Connor returned to Arizona and still could not find work with a 
    traditional law firm due to her gender, so she ``hung out a 
    shingle'' as a sole practitioner.
        (5) In 1965, O'Connor was hired as an Assistant Attorney 
    General for the State of Arizona.
        (6) Active in Republican Party politics and well-received for 
    her work at the Arizona State Capitol, O'Connor was appointed to an 
    Arizona State Senate seat in 1969 when the incumbent, also a woman, 
    was appointed to a Federal position and vacated the office.
        (7) In 1970, O'Connor was elected to the Arizona State Senate 
    and served 2 consecutive terms. In 1972, she was selected as 
    Majority Leader of the Arizona State Senate, the first time a woman 
    held such a position in any State.
        (8) In 1974, O'Connor ran for office as a trial court judge. 
    She won and was later appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 
    1979.
        (9) On August 19, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated 
    O'Connor to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, to fill 
    the seat vacated by Associate Justice Potter Stewart. On September 
    21, 1981, the Senate confirmed O'Connor's nomination by a unanimous 
    vote, making her the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
        (10) O'Connor established herself as a pragmatic, independent 
    voice on the Supreme Court, casting decisive votes during a time 
    when the Court was being asked to resolve politically charged 
    issues.
        (11) In the 1982 case of Mississippi University for Women v. 
    Hogan, O'Connor wrote the majority opinion holding that the State 
    could not prevent men from enrolling in an all-women's nursing 
    school, writing that laws discriminating on the basis of sex would 
    be allowed only if there was an ``exceedingly persuasive 
    justification'' for them.
        (12) O'Connor sought, when possible, to find the middle ground 
    between her often-divided colleagues, frequently joining the 
    majority decision but presenting her views in concurring opinions 
    that eschewed broad constitutional doctrine in favor of resolving 
    the cases before the Court.
        (13) O'Connor put a very public face on the role of the Supreme 
    Court, domestically and around the world. She became the Court's 
    most prolific public speaker, traveling to all 50 States and to 
    countless law schools, libraries, and public events to describe how 
    the Court works and its role in our constitutional form of 
    government. She traveled worldwide as an ambassador for the Rule of 
    Law and the independence of judiciaries everywhere.
        (14) After 24 years on the Supreme Court, O'Connor announced 
    her retirement to care for her ailing husband, who had Alzheimer's 
    disease. President George W. Bush nominated John Roberts, Jr., for 
    the vacancy, but before Roberts was confirmed, Chief Justice 
    Rehnquist passed away, creating a second vacancy. President Bush 
    personally appealed to O'Connor to remain on the Court so he could 
    nominate Roberts for the Chief Justice vacancy and have more time 
    to make a second nomination to the Court. In yet another act of 
    public service, O'Connor agreed to serve until Samuel Alito was 
    confirmed to fill her seat on January 31, 2006.
        (15) O'Connor began her retirement with 2 goals. One was to 
    convince more States to adopt merit selection of judges for filling 
    vacancies in State courts. The second was to educate the public on 
    the importance of an independent judiciary. Her judicial 
    independence work led to her awareness of a national civics 
    education deficit.
        (16) In 2009, O'Connor created iCivics.org to educate young 
    Americans about civics and what it means to be a citizen. That 
    endeavor grew to become the largest civics education platform in 
    the country, with over 7,000,000 students annually enrolling in the 
    programs. Its popularity was due to a captivating online, 
    interactive gaming approach. The program was free to all and had no 
    advertising. iCivics played a crucial role in Educating for 
    American Democracy, a federally funded initiative to improve civics 
    and history education, which released its reports in March 2021.
    (b) Ruth Bader Ginsburg.--Congress finds the following:
        (1) Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, 
    and grew up in a low-income, working-class neighborhood.
        (2) Ginsburg graduated from Cornell University in 1954, 
    finishing first in her class. Following her graduation, Ginsburg 
    enrolled at Harvard Law School in 1956, entering into a class of 
    552 men and only 8 other women.
        (3) As a law student, Ginsburg became the first female member 
    of the Harvard Law Review, a prestigious legal journal. She also 
    cared for her husband, Martin Ginsburg, who had been diagnosed with 
    cancer, and their young daughter. Ginsburg finished her legal 
    education at Columbia Law School, where she graduated first in her 
    class in 1959.
        (4) Ginsburg taught at Rutgers University Law School from 1963 
    to 1972 and at Columbia Law School from 1972 to 1980, where she 
    became the school's first female tenured professor.
        (5) During the 1970s, Ginsburg served as the director of the 
    Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 
    this position, she led the fight against gender discrimination and 
    successfully argued 6 landmark cases before the Supreme Court.
        (6) Ginsburg won 5 cases on gender discrimination before the 
    Supreme Court, including the case Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, which 
    involved a portion of the Social Security Act that favored women 
    over men, because the Act granted certain benefits to widows, but 
    not widowers.
        (7) In 1980, President Jimmy Carter nominated Ginsburg to a 
    seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of 
    Columbia Circuit.
        (8) On June 22, 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Ginsburg 
    to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, to fill the seat 
    vacated by Associate Justice Byron White. On August 3, 1993, the 
    Senate confirmed Ginsburg's nomination to the Supreme Court by a 96 
    to 3 vote.
        (9) Ginsburg became the second female justice to serve on the 
    Supreme Court, as well as the first Jewish female justice to serve 
    on the Supreme Court.
        (10) As a justice, Ginsburg presented a strong voice in favor 
    of gender equality, voting rights, the rights of workers, and the 
    separation of church and state.
        (11) In 1996, Ginsburg wrote the Supreme Court's landmark 
    decision in United States v. Virginia, which held that the State-
    supported Virginia Military Institute could not refuse to admit 
    women.
        (12) Ginsburg famously dissented in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire 
    & Rubber Co., where the plaintiff, a female worker being paid 
    significantly less than males with her same qualifications, sued 
    under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et 
    seq.), but was denied relief under a statute of limitation issue. 
    Ginsburg broke with tradition and wrote a high colloquial version 
    of her dissent to read from the bench. In her dissent, she also 
    called for Congress to undo this interpretation of the law.
        (13) Ginsburg's impactful dissent in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire 
    & Rubber Co. led to the successful passage of the Lilly Ledbetter 
    Fair Pay Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-2; 123 Stat. 5), which was the 
    first piece of legislation signed by President Barack Obama.
        (14) Until the 2018 term, Ginsburg had not missed a day of oral 
    arguments, not even when she was undergoing chemotherapy for 
    pancreatic cancer, after surgery for colon cancer, or the day after 
    her husband passed away in 2010.
        (15) Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 2020.
SEC. 2. STATUES HONORING JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR AND JUSTICE RUTH 
BADER GINSBURG.
    (a) Obtaining of Statues.--
        (1) In general.--Not later than 2 years after the date of the 
    enactment of this Act, in consultation with the Committee on House 
    Administration of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
    Rules and Administration of the Senate, and under such terms and 
    conditions as the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library 
    considers appropriate, consistent with applicable law, the Joint 
    Committee shall--
            (A) enter into an agreement to obtain a statue honoring 
        Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 
        Sandra Day O'Connor; and
            (B) enter into an agreement to obtain a statue honoring 
        Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 
        Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
        (2) Consideration.--In selecting one or more artists to make 
    the statues obtained under paragraph (1), the Joint Committee of 
    Congress on the Library shall make the announcement available to, 
    and consider, artists from a variety of backgrounds, including 
    artists from underrepresented demographic groups.
    (b) Installation.--
        (1) In general.--The Architect of the Capitol, under the 
    direction of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, shall 
    permanently install each statue obtained under subsection (a) in a 
    prominent location in the Capitol or on the Capitol Grounds, as 
    described in section 5102 of title 40, United States Code.
        (2) Priority for location.--In determining the location for the 
    permanent installation of each statue obtained under subsection 
    (a), the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library shall give 
    priority to identifying an appropriate location near the Old 
    Supreme Court Chamber of the United States Capitol.
    (c) Funding.--Amounts available in the Capitol Preservation Fund 
established under section 803 of the Arizona-Idaho Conservation Act of 
1988 (2 U.S.C. 2083) may be used by the Joint Committee of Congress on 
the Library for payments for the costs of creating 

  
and installing the statues obtained under subsection (a), without 
regard to subsections (b) and (d) of such section, provided that not 
more than $500,000 of such amounts may be used for each statue obtained 
under subsection (a).

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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