WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen (Both D-Md.) today released the following statement upon House passage of legislation to replace in the U.S. Capitol the bust of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney with one of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

“We strongly applaud the House of Representatives’ passage of legislation to replace the statue in the U.S. Capitol of former Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, author of the despicable Dred Scott decision, with that of trailblazing Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve on our nation’s highest court. We urge our colleagues in the Senate to move forward on this crucial initiative and pass our similar legislation that we’ve championed for years and will be reintroducing in the coming days,” said U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen. “As we continue to grapple with systemic racism, we should highlight leaders in history who have propelled us toward justice – and put an end to the glorification of those who stood in its way. From his neighborhood in Baltimore to the halls of the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall worked his entire life to help build civil rights in America from the ground up. As a civil rights icon, Thurgood Marshall argued cases that began to bring down the walls of segregation in our home state and nationwide. His arguments in Murray vs. Pearson led to the desegregation of the University of Maryland School of Law and those in Brown vs. Board of Education led this nation to recognize that the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ was antithetical to our ideals of freedom and liberty. It’s past time we memorialize his legacy in the U.S. Capitol.”