To obtain and direct the placement in the United States Capitol or on the United States Capitol Grounds of a monument to honor Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8380 To obtain and direct the placement in the United States Capitol or on the United States Capitol Grounds of a monument to honor Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ruth Bader Ginsburg. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 Ms. FRANKEL (for herself, Ms. SPEIER, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Ms. ESCOBAR, Ms. HAALAND, and Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration A BILL To obtain and direct the placement in the United States Capitol or on the United States 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 Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 3 Congress finds the following: 4 (1) Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in 1933 in 5 Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in a low-income, 6 working-class neighborhood. 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:41 Oct 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8380.IH H8380 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8380 IH (2) Ginsburg graduated from Cornell University 1 in 1954, finishing first in her class. 2 (3) Ginsburg enrolled at Harvard Law School 3 in 1956, entering into a class of 552 men and only 4 8 other women. 5 (4) As a law student, Ginsburg became the first 6 female member of the prestigious legal journal, the 7 Harvard Law Review. She also cared for her hus- 8 band, Martin Ginsburg, who had been diagnosed 9 with cancer, and their young daughter. 10 (5) Ginsburg finished her legal education at Co- 11 lumbia Law School, where she graduated first in her 12 class in 1959. 13 (6) Ginsburg taught at Rutgers University Law 14 School from 1963 to 1972 and at Columbia Law 15 School from 1972 to 1980, where she became the 16 school’s first female tenured professor. 17 (7) During the 1970s, Ginsburg served as the 18 director of the Women’s Rights Project of the Amer- 19 ican Civil Liberties Union. In this position, she led 20 the fight against gender discrimination and success- 21 fully argued 6 landmark cases before the Supreme 22 Court of the United States (in this section referred 23 to as the ‘‘Supreme Court’’). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:41 Oct 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8380.IH H8380 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8380 IH (8) Ginsburg won 5 cases on gender discrimina- 1 tion before the Supreme Court, including the case 2 Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, which involved a portion 3 of the Social Security Act that favored women over 4 men, because the Act granted certain benefits to 5 widows, but not widowers. 6 (9) In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed 7 Ginsburg to the United States Court of Appeals for 8 the District of Columbia Circuit. 9 (10) In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed 10 Ginsburg to the Supreme Court to fill the seat va- 11 cated by Associate Justice Byron White. 12 (11) On August 3, 1993, the Senate confirmed 13 Ginsburg’s nomination to the Supreme Court by a 14 96 to 3 vote. 15 (12) Ginsburg became the second female justice 16 to serve on the Supreme Court as well as the first 17 Jewish female justice to serve on the Supreme 18 Court. 19 (13) As a justice, Ginsburg presented a strong 20 voice in favor of gender equality, voting rights, the 21 rights of workers, and the separation of church and 22 state. 23 (14) In 1996, Ginsburg wrote the Supreme 24 Court’s landmark decision in United States v. Vir- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:41 Oct 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8380.IH H8380 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8380 IH ginia, which held that the State-supported Virginia 1 Military Institute could not refuse to admit women. 2 (15) Despite her reputation for restrained writ- 3 ing, Ginsburg gathered considerable attention for 4 her dissenting opinion in Bush v. Gore by subtly 5 concluding her decision with the words, ‘‘I dissent’’, 6 a significant departure from the traditional ‘‘respect- 7 fully dissent’’. 8 (16) Ginsburg famously dissented in Ledbetter 9 v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., where the plaintiff, 10 a female worker being paid significantly less than 11 males with her same qualifications, sued under title 12 VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 13 2000e et seq.), but was denied relief under a statute 14 of limitation issue. Ginsburg broke with tradition 15 and wrote a high colloquial version of her dissent to 16 read from the bench. In her dissent, she also called 17 for Congress to undo this improper interpretation of 18 the law. 19 (17) Following her dissent in Ledbetter v. 20 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Ginsburg worked with 21 President Barack Obama to pass the first piece of 22 legislation he signed, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay 23 Act of 2009 (Public Law 111–2; 123 Stat. 5). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:41 Oct 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8380.IH H8380 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8380 IH (18) In 2013, when the Supreme Court ruled in 1 a 5–4 decision in Shelby County v. Holder to gut the 2 Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et 3 seq.), Ginsburg wrote, ‘‘Throwing out preclearance 4 when it has worked and is continuing to work to 5 stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away 6 your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not 7 getting wet.’’. 8 (19) Until the 2018 term, Ginsburg had not 9 missed a day of oral arguments, not even when she 10 was undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, 11 after surgery for colon cancer, or the day after her 12 husband passed away in 2010. 13 SEC. 2. MONUMENT HONORING JUSTICE RUTH BADER 14 GINSBURG. 15 (a) OBTAINING OF MONUMENT.— 16 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after 17 the date of the enactment of this Act, and in con- 18 sultation with the Committee on House Administra- 19 tion of the House of Representatives and the Com- 20 mittee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, 21 the Joint Committee on the Library shall enter into 22 an agreement to obtain a monument honoring Asso- 23 ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 24 States Ruth Bader Ginsburg under such terms and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:41 Oct 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8380.IH H8380 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 8380 IH conditions as the Joint Committee considers appro- 1 priate, consistent with applicable law. 2 (2) CONSIDERATION.—In selecting an artist to 3 make the monument obtained under paragraph (1), 4 the Joint Committee on the Library shall make the 5 announcement available to and consider artists from 6 underrepresented demographic groups. 7 (b) INSTALLATION.—The Architect of the Capitol, 8 under the direction of the Joint Committee on the Library, 9 shall permanently install the monument obtained under 10 subsection (a) in a prominent location in the United States 11 Capitol or a prominent location on the United States Cap- 12 itol Grounds, as described in section 5102 of title 40, 13 United States Code. 14 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 15 are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are nec- 16 essary to carry out this Act. Amounts appropriated pursu- 17 ant to this subsection shall remain available until ex- 18 pended. 19 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:41 Oct 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8380.IH H8380 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS