Congress OKs Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg statues at US Capitol

Statues of Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor of Arizona and Ruth Bader Ginsburg would rise on the U.S. Capitol grounds under a Congress-passed bill that is awaiting President Joe Biden's signature.

Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona voted against the measure, which the House of Representatives passed Tuesday on a 349-63 vote. The other seven members of Arizona's House delegation supported the legislation, which the Senate passed late last year via unanimous consent.

The bill requires that statues honoring the two justices must be featured in a prominent spot on the U.S. Capitol grounds, and they must be built within two years of the legislation's authorization.

The justices are being honored for being the first two women to serve on the highest court in the United States.

Sandra Day O’Connor, who turned 92 on March 26, was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Nominated in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan, she served until 2006 when she stepped down to tend to family health matters.

O’Connor was born in El Paso, Texas, but spent a large portion of her childhood on a family-owned ranch in Duncan, Arizona.

Her 25 years of court experience were filled with landmark cases such as Bush v. Gore (2000); Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) and McConnell v. FEC (2003).

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993 and served until her death in September 2020. She was the first Jewish American to lie in the U.S. Capitol.

Though Ginsburg was known throughout her career for her efforts to promote gender equality in Social Security and in wages, she also was known for her famed dissents in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) and Bush v. Gore (2000).

Only three other women since have been confirmed to the high court, though a potential fourth, Ketanji Brown Jackson, is now going through the Senate confirmation process.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Congress approves O'Connor, Ginsburg statues at US Capitol