[117th Congress Public Law 111]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[[Page 1165]]
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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.
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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 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
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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) <<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-
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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).
Approved April 13, 2022.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--S. 3294:
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD:
Vol. 167 (2021):
Dec. 9, considered and passed
Senate.
Vol. 168 (2022):
Mar. 28, considered and passed
House.
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