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.
Bill: H.R.1455 | Sponsor: Rep. Frankel, Lois (D-FL)
Policy area: Congress

Summary:
This bill requires the Joint Committee on the Library to obtain, and the Architect of the Capitol to permanently install in the U.S. Capitol or on the U.S. Capitol Grounds, a monument honoring Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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.

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    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.
            (3) Ginsburg enrolled at Harvard Law School in 1956, 
        entering into a class of 552 men and only 8 other women.
            (4) As a law student, Ginsburg became the first female 
        member of the prestigious legal journal, the Harvard Law 
        Review. She also cared for her husband, Martin Ginsburg, who 
        had been diagnosed with cancer, and their young daughter.
            (5) Ginsburg finished her legal education at Columbia Law 
        School, where she graduated first in her class in 1959.
            (6) 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.
            (7) 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 of the United States (in this section 
        referred to as the ``Supreme Court'').
            (8) 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.
            (9) In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed Ginsburg to 
        the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia 
        Circuit.
            (10) In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Ginsburg to 
        the Supreme Court to fill the seat vacated by Associate Justice 
        Byron White.
            (11) On August 3, 1993, the Senate confirmed Ginsburg's 
        nomination to the Supreme Court by a 96 to 3 vote.
            (12) 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.
            (13) 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.
            (14) 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.
            (15) Despite her reputation for restrained writing, 
        Ginsburg gathered considerable attention for her dissenting 
        opinion in Bush v. Gore by subtly concluding her decision with 
        the words, ``I dissent'', a significant departure from the 
        traditional ``respectfully dissent''.
            (16) 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 improper interpretation of the law.
            (17) 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.
            (18) In 2013, when the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 
        decision in Shelby County v. Holder to gut the Voting Rights 
        Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), Ginsburg wrote, 
        ``Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is 
        continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like 
        throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not 
        getting wet.''.
            (19) 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.

SEC. 2. MONUMENT HONORING JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG.

    (a) Obtaining of Monument.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 2 years after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, and in consultation with the 
        Committee on House Administration of the House of 
        Representatives and the Committee on Rules and Administration 
        of the Senate, the Joint Committee on the Library shall enter 
        into an agreement to obtain a monument honoring Associate 
        Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ruth Bader 
        Ginsburg under such terms and conditions as the Joint Committee 
        considers appropriate, consistent with applicable law.
            (2) Consideration.--In selecting an artist to make the 
        monument obtained under paragraph (1), the Joint Committee on 
        the Library shall make the announcement available to and 
        consider artists from underrepresented demographic groups.
    (b) Installation.--The Architect of the Capitol, under the 
direction of the Joint Committee on the Library, shall permanently 
install the monument 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.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out this Act. Amounts 
appropriated pursuant to this subsection shall remain available until 
expended.
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