UPDATE (7:05 p.m. ET): The vote passed the House with a bipartisan 305-113 vote.
The House is set to vote Wednesday on legislation that would remove statuary in the Capitol that honor former members of the Confederacy, as well as a bust of Justice Roger Taney, the Washington Post reports.
House to vote on removing Confederate statues from the Capitol and replacing bust of segregationist chief justice https://t.co/4Cmy5WgfDU
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 22, 2020
The bill covers “all statues of individuals who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America,” specifically mentioning Charles B. Aycock, John C. Calhoun and James P. Clarke, and direct the Architect of the Capitol to remove any applicable honoraria.
The bust of Taney sits in front of the old Supreme Court chamber on the first floor of the Capitol. Taney wrote the Dred Scott decision which denied freedom and citizenship to slaves in free territories and states, stating that Black people “are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution.”
To replace the Taney bust, the legislation recommends a bust of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice who served from 1967 to 1991.
While the bill will likely pass the House, it will face opposition in the Senate, where Leader Mitch McConnell has stated his opinion that the statuary be left to the states.