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. 
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(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 allwomen’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 
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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. 
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(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-
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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.