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.
Bill: S.3294 | Sponsor: Sen. Klobuchar, Amy (D-MN)
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, statues honoring Associate Justices of the Supreme Court Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

[117th Congress Public Law 111]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                     

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Public Law 117-111
117th Congress

                                 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. <<NOTE: Apr. 13, 2022 -  [S. 3294]>> 

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, <<NOTE: 2 USC 2133 
note.>> 
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.

[[Page 136 STAT. 1167]]

            (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

[[Page 136 STAT. 1168]]

        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) <<NOTE: Deadline. Consultation. Contracts.>>  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-

[[Page 136 STAT. 1170]]

 

      

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).

    Approved April 13, 2022.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--S. 3294:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD:
                                                        Vol. 167 (2021):
                                    Dec. 9, considered and passed 
                                        Senate.
                                                        Vol. 168 (2022):
                                    Mar. 28, considered and passed 
                                        House.

                                  <all>