Justice Ginsburg, the first woman to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol, will rest on the Lincoln catafalque

The resolution provides use of the catafalque for memorial services honoring the late Justice Ginsburg

WASHINGTON- U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee announced that her resolution providing use of the catafalque situated beneath the Capitol Rotunda for memorial services honoring the late Justice Ginsburg, passed in the Senate. This week Speaker Pelosi announced that Justice Ginsburg will lie in state in Statuary Hall. Justice Ginsberg will be the first woman and first Jewish person to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol and only the second Supreme Court Justice to receive this honor in our nation’s history.

“Justice Ginsburg was an icon and a woman way ahead of her time. She opened doors for women at a time when so many insisted on keeping them shut and showed future women lawyers – like me – that anything and everything was possible,” Klobuchar said. “This resolution will ensure the life of Justice Ginsburg is honored in the United States Capitol.”   

The Lincoln catafalque is a platform constructed in 1865 to support the casket of Abraham Lincoln while the president's body lay in state in the U.S. Capitol.   

Full text of the resolution can be found HERE. 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Providing for the use of the catafalque situated in the crypt beneath the Rotunda of the Capitol in connection with memorial services to be conducted in the Supreme Court Building for the late honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That the Architect of the Capitol is authorized and directed to transfer to the custody of the Supreme Court of the United States the catafalque which is situated in the crypt beneath the Rotunda of the Capitol so that such catafalque may be used in the Supreme Court Building in connection with services to be conducted there.

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