A bill that calls for statues of former Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to be placed at the U.S. Capitol was passed in the House (349 to 63) Monday.
Since it already passed in the Senate, the bill should soon land on President Joe Biden’s desk.
All those who voted against the bill in the House were Republicans. They included Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Rep. John Joyce of Pennsylvania.
Sandra Day O’Connor, 92, became the first female Supreme Court justice in 1981 when she was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan. Before she became a justice, the El Paso, Texas, native grew up on an Arizona cattle ranch. By the time she was 16, O’Connor was studying at Stanford University. She was third in her law school class, behind William Rehnquist, who would also serve on the Supreme Court.
“Despite her qualifications, O'Connor could not find work as an attorney because of bias against women in the law,” early on in her career, according to the bill text. In 1965, O'Connor was hired as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Arizona.
She was also active in Republican Party politics and was appointed to an Arizona state Senate seat in 1969. O’Connor was later elected to the seat.
She “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,” and often sought middle-ground between her colleagues, said the bill. Samuel Alito filled her seat in 2006.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away in 2020 at 87, grew up in working class Brooklyn, New York. She finished first in her class from Cornell University in 1954 and enrolled at Harvard Law School in 1956. Only eight other women were in the class of more than 550.
Ginsburg became the first female member of the Harvard Law Review, a prestigious legal journal. She finished her legal education at Columbia Law School while caring for her husband – who had been diagnosed with cancer – and again graduated first in her class in 1959.
After graduating, she 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. Ginsburg also served as the director of the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union in the 1970s.
In that position, she successfully argued six landmark cases and won 5 cases on gender discrimination before the Supreme Court. President Bill Clinton nominated Ginsburg to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, to fill the seat vacated by Associate Justice Byron White, in 1993. She is the first Jewish justice to serve on the court.
“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,” said the bill.
According to the legislation, within two years Congressional committees will enter into agreements to obtain statues of the two justices and select artists to create the statues.
Once complete, the statues are to be placed near the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the United States Capitol. No more than $500,000 in Capitol Preservation Funds should be used to obtain each statue.
“Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor were trailblazers long before reaching the Supreme Court, opening doors for women at a time when so many insisted on keeping them shut,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the bill’s sponsor. “The Capitol is our most recognizable symbol of democracy, a place where people from across our country have their voices represented and heard. It is only fitting that we honor their remarkable lives and service to our country by establishing statues in the Capitol. Now that this bill has passed the House, I look forward to it being signed into law.”
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