II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3294 

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. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 1, 2021 

Ms. KLOBUCHAR (for herself, Ms. MURKOWSKI, Ms. COLLINS, Ms. SINEMA, 

Mr. DURBIN, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. KING, Mrs. CAPITO, Ms. BALDWIN, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. 

BLUMENTHAL, Mr. KELLY, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. 

KAINE, Mr. MERKLEY, Ms. SMITH, and Mrs. SHAHEEN) 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 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. 

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


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1 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

2 (a) SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR.—Congress finds the 

3 following: 

4 (1) Sandra Day O’Connor was born in 1930 in 

5 El Paso, Texas, and spent her childhood on her fam6 ily’s isolated Arizona cattle ranch. She lived with her 

7 grandmother in El Paso during the school year, 

8 away from her home and parents. 

9 (2) O’Connor matriculated to Stanford Univer10 sity at the age of 16, and combined her under11 graduate and law school curricula, graduating with 

12 a bachelor’s degree in economics and a law degree 

13 in just 6 years. She was third in her law school 

14 class, behind William Rehnquist, her future col15 league on the Supreme Court of the United States 

16 (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Supreme Court’’). 

17 (3) Despite her qualifications, O’Connor could 

18 not find work as an attorney because of bias against 

19 women in the law. She ended up negotiating for an 

20 unpaid position in the San Mateo County District 

21 Attorney’s office at a shared desk, while her hus22 band, John, finished at Stanford Law School 1 year 

23 later. 

24 (4) O’Connor traveled to Frankfurt, Germany, 

25 in 1954 with her husband John, who had joined the 

26 United States Army Judge Advocate General’s 


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1 Corps, where she was able to find work as a civilian 

2 attorney with the United States Army Quarter3 master Corps. In 1957, O’Connor returned to Ari4 zona and still could not find work with a traditional 

5 law firm due to her gender, so she ‘‘hung out a shin6 gle’’ as a sole practitioner. 

7 (5) In 1965, O’Connor was hired as an Assist8 ant Attorney General for the State of Arizona. 

9 (6) Active in Republican Party politics and 

10 well-received for her work at the Arizona State Cap11 itol, O’Connor was appointed to an Arizona State 

12 Senate seat in 1969 when the incumbent, also a 

13 woman, was appointed to a Federal position and va14 cated the office. 

15 (7) In 1970, O’Connor was elected to the Ari16 zona State Senate and served 2 consecutive terms. 

17 In 1972, she was selected as Majority Leader of the 

18 Arizona State Senate, the first time a woman held 

19 such a position in any State. 

20 (8) In 1974, O’Connor ran for office as a trial 

21 court judge. She won and was later appointed to the 

22 Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979. 

23 (9) On August 19, 1981, President Ronald 

24 Reagan nominated O’Connor to be an Associate Jus25 tice of the Supreme Court, to fill the seat vacated 


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1 by Associate Justice Potter Stewart. On September 

2 21, 1981, the Senate confirmed O’Connor’s nomina3 tion by a unanimous vote, making her the first 

4 woman to serve on the Supreme Court. 

5 (10) O’Connor established herself as a prag6 matic, independent voice on the Supreme Court, 

7 casting decisive votes during a time when the Court 

8 was being asked to resolve politically charged issues. 

9 (11) In the 1982 case of Mississippi University 

10 for Women v. Hogan, O’Connor wrote the majority 

11 opinion holding that the State could not prevent 

12 men from enrolling in an all-women’s nursing school, 

13 writing that laws discriminating on the basis of sex 

14 would be allowed only if there was an ‘‘exceedingly 

15 persuasive justification’’ for them. 

16 (12) O’Connor sought, when possible, to find 

17 the middle ground between her often-divided col18 leagues, frequently joining the majority decision but 

19 presenting her views in concurring opinions that es20 chewed broad constitutional doctrine in favor of re21 solving the cases before the Court. 

22 (13) O’Connor put a very public face on the 

23 role of the Supreme Court, domestically and around 

24 the world. She became the Court’s most prolific pub25 lic speaker, traveling to all 50 States and to countVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:56 Dec 07, 2021 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3294.IS S3294

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1 less law schools, libraries, and public events to de2 scribe how the Court works and its role in our con3 stitutional form of government. She traveled world4 wide as an ambassador for the Rule of Law and the 

5 independence of judiciaries everywhere. 

6 (14) After 24 years on the Supreme Court, 

7 O’Connor announced her retirement to care for her 

8 ailing husband, who had Alzheimer’s disease. Presi9 dent George W. Bush nominated John Roberts, Jr., 

10 for the vacancy, but before Roberts was confirmed, 

11 Chief Justice Rehnquist passed away, creating a sec12 ond vacancy. President Bush personally appealed to 

13 O’Connor to remain on the Court so he could nomi14 nate Roberts for the Chief Justice vacancy and have 

15 more time to make a second nomination to the 

16 Court. In yet another act of public service, O’Connor 

17 agreed to serve until Samuel Alito was confirmed to 

18 fill her seat on January 31, 2006. 

19 (15) O’Connor began her retirement with 2 

20 goals. One was to convince more States to adopt 

21 merit selection of judges for filling vacancies in 

22 State courts. The second was to educate the public 

23 on the importance of an independent judiciary. Her 

24 judicial independence work led to her awareness of 

25 a national civics education deficit. 


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1 (16) In 2009, O’Connor created iCivics.org to 

2 educate young Americans about civics and what it 

3 means to be a citizen. That endeavor grew to become 

4 the largest civics education platform in the country, 

5 with over 7,000,000 students annually enrolling in 

6 the programs. Its popularity was due to a capti7 vating online, interactive gaming approach. The pro8 gram was free to all and had no advertising. iCivics 

9 played a crucial role in Educating for American De10 mocracy, a federally funded initiative to improve 

11 civics and history education, which released its re12 ports in March 2021. 

13 (b) RUTH BADER GINSBURG.—Congress finds the 

14 following: 

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

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

17 working-class neighborhood. 

18 (2) Ginsburg graduated from Cornell University 

19 in 1954, finishing first in her class. Following her 

20 graduation, Ginsburg enrolled at Harvard Law 

21 School in 1956, entering into a class of 552 men 

22 and only 8 other women. 

23 (3) As a law student, Ginsburg became the first 

24 female member of the Harvard Law Review, a pres25 tigious legal journal. She also cared for her husband, 


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1 Martin Ginsburg, who had been diagnosed with can2 cer, and their young daughter. Ginsburg finished her 

3 legal education at Columbia Law School, where she 

4 graduated first in her class in 1959. 

5 (4) Ginsburg taught at Rutgers University Law 

6 School from 1963 to 1972 and at Columbia Law 

7 School from 1972 to 1980, where she became the 

8 school’s first female tenured professor. 

9 (5) During the 1970s, Ginsburg served as the 

10 director of the Women’s Rights Project of the Amer11 ican Civil Liberties Union. In this position, she led 

12 the fight against gender discrimination and success13 fully argued 6 landmark cases before the Supreme 

14 Court. 

15 (6) Ginsburg won 5 cases on gender discrimina16 tion before the Supreme Court, including the case 

17 Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, which involved a portion 

18 of the Social Security Act that favored women over 

19 men, because the Act granted certain benefits to 

20 widows, but not widowers. 

21 (7) In 1980, President Jimmy Carter nomi22 nated Ginsburg to a seat on the United States Court 

23 of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 

24 (8) On June 22, 1993, President Bill Clinton 

25 nominated Ginsburg to be an Associate Justice of 


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1 the Supreme Court, to fill the seat vacated by Asso2 ciate Justice Byron White. On August 3, 1993, the 

3 Senate confirmed Ginsburg’s nomination to the Su4 preme Court by a 96 to 3 vote. 

5 (9) Ginsburg became the second female justice 

6 to serve on the Supreme Court, as well as the first 

7 Jewish female justice to serve on the Supreme 

8 Court. 

9 (10) As a justice, Ginsburg presented a strong 

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

11 rights of workers, and the separation of church and 

12 state. 

13 (11) In 1996, Ginsburg wrote the Supreme 

14 Court’s landmark decision in United States v. Vir15 ginia, which held that the State-supported Virginia 

16 Military Institute could not refuse to admit women. 

17 (12) Ginsburg famously dissented in Ledbetter 

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

19 a female worker being paid significantly less than 

20 males with her same qualifications, sued under title 

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

22 2000e et seq.), but was denied relief under a statute 

23 of limitation issue. Ginsburg broke with tradition 

24 and wrote a high colloquial version of her dissent to 


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

2 for Congress to undo this interpretation of the law. 

3 (13) Ginsburg’s impactful dissent in Ledbetter 

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

5 passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 

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

7 first piece of legislation signed by President Barack 

8 Obama. 

9 (14) 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 (15) Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 

15 2020. 

16 SEC. 2. STATUES HONORING JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O’CON17 NOR AND JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG. 

18 (a) OBTAINING OF STATUES.— 

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

20 the date of the enactment of this Act, in consulta21 tion with the Committee on House Administration of 

22 the House of Representatives and the Committee on 

23 Rules and Administration of the Senate, and under 

24 such terms and conditions as the Joint Committee 

25 of Congress on the Library considers appropriate, 


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1 consistent with applicable law, the Joint Committee 

2 shall— 

3 (A) enter into an agreement to obtain a 

4 statue honoring Associate Justice of the Su5 preme Court of the United States Sandra Day 

6 O’Connor; and 

7 (B) enter into an agreement to obtain a 

8 statue honoring Associate Justice of the Su9 preme Court of the United States Ruth Bader 

10 Ginsburg. 

11 (2) CONSIDERATION.—In selecting one or more 

12 artists to make the statues obtained under para13 graph (1), the Joint Committee of Congress on the 

14 Library shall make the announcement available to, 

15 and consider, artists from a variety of backgrounds, 

16 including artists from underrepresented demographic 

17 groups. 

18 (b) INSTALLATION.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Architect of the Capitol, 

20 under the direction of the Joint Committee of Con21 gress on the Library, shall permanently install each 

22 statue obtained under subsection (a) in a prominent 

23 location in the Capitol or on the Capitol Grounds, as 

24 described in section 5102 of title 40, United States 

25 Code. 


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1 (2) PRIORITY FOR LOCATION.—In determining 

2 the location for the permanent installation of each 

3 statue obtained under subsection (a), the Joint Com4 mittee of Congress on the Library shall give priority 

5 to identifying an appropriate location near the Old 

6 Supreme Court Chamber of the United States Cap7 itol. 

8 (c) FUNDING.—Amounts available in the Capitol 

9 Preservation Fund established under section 803 of the 

10 Arizona-Idaho Conservation Act of 1988 (2 U.S.C. 2083) 

11 may be used by the Joint Committee of Congress on the 

12 Library for payments for the costs of creating and install13 ing the statues obtained under subsection (a), without re14 gard to subsections (b) and (d) of such section, provided 

15 that not more than $500,000 of such amounts may be 

16 used for each statue obtained under subsection (a). 

Æ 


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