This bill authorizes Congress to award a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal to Constance Baker Motley, a pioneering civil rights lawyer and federal judge who passed away in 2005. Motley was a trailblazer who served as the only female attorney on the legal team that won Brown v. Board of Education, argued ten major civil rights cases before the Supreme Court (winning all but one), became the first African-American woman elected to the New York State Senate, and served as the first African-American woman appointed to the federal judiciary, eventually becoming Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Treasury Department will design and strike the gold medal, which will be presented to Motley's son, Joel Motley III, and her niece, Constance Royster. The bill authorizes the Treasury to charge necessary costs to the U.S. Mint Public Enterprise Fund and allows the sale of duplicate bronze medals, with proceeds returned to that fund to offset expenses.
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