They made history as the first two women to serve on the Supreme Court, and now trailblazers Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor are being honored with statues on Capitol Hill.
In December, the Senate passed by unanimous consent legislation to install statues of the women on Capitol grounds, and the House approved the measure last month with a 349-63 vote. President Biden signed the bill into law on Wednesday.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) sponsored the legislation, and tweeted, "As RBG said, 'Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.' Now, we'll have two more reminders in the Capitol of how true that is."
The Democratic Women's Caucus also applauded the bill becoming a law, saying it is "an exciting day for children who dream of following in the footsteps of these legal giants." The justices "broke the highest and hardest glass ceiling in our judiciary," the caucus added, "becoming the first two women to sit on the Supreme Court after persisting through decades of gender-based discrimination in their academic and professional careers."
O'Connor was the first woman nominated and confirmed to the Supreme Court, serving from 1981 to 2006. In 2018, O'Connor announced she was experiencing the first stages of dementia, and would be withdrawing from public life. Ginsburg served on the Supreme Court from 1993 until her death from complications of pancreatic cancer in 2020.