This bill directs Congress to award the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously to Constance Baker Motley in recognition of her civil‑rights litigation, political firsts, and long federal judicial service. It instructs the Secretary of the Treasury to design and strike the medal, requires congressional leaders to arrange a presentation on behalf of Congress, and specifies that the gold medal will be given to members of her family.
Beyond symbolic recognition, the bill authorizes the U.S. Mint to produce and sell bronze duplicate medals at a price sufficient to cover production costs and makes clear that medal production and sales will be handled through the Mint’s Public Enterprise Fund. That creates modest administrative and numismatic consequences for the Mint, collecting institutions, and the named family recipients.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill authorizes a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal for Constance Baker Motley, directs the Secretary of the Treasury to design and strike the medal, and names the specific family recipients for presentation. It permits the Secretary to strike and sell bronze duplicates to recoup costs and designates the items as national medals and numismatic items under federal law.
Who It Affects
Directly affects the Department of the Treasury and the United States Mint (design, production, pricing, and sales). It affects the named family recipients, numismatists and collectors, museums or institutions that may seek the medal, and organizations that preserve civil‑rights history.
Why It Matters
The bill is primarily symbolic recognition of a major civil‑rights figure, but it also creates a small, self‑contained production-and‑sales program at the Mint and sets ownership/disposition rules for the physical gold medal — matters of interest to collectors, museums, and Mint administrators.
More articles like this one.
A weekly email with all the latest developments on this topic.
What This Bill Actually Does
The bill opens with a set of findings summarizing Constance Baker Motley’s life and career — her legal work with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Supreme Court advocacy, political firsts in New York, and long service on the federal bench. Those findings establish the historical rationale for the honor but do not create regulatory obligations beyond the commemorative award itself.
The core operative text authorizes congressional leaders (the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate) to arrange a posthumous presentation of a gold medal on behalf of Congress. It charges the Secretary of the Treasury with striking the gold medal “with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions,” and requires the design to include an image of Constance Baker Motley and her name.
The bill specifies the presentation recipients by name and provides that the gold medal, after presentation, will be given to Joel Motley III.To make the medal available more broadly, the statute permits the Secretary to strike and sell duplicates in bronze. Those duplicates must be sold at a price sufficient to cover the costs of production — the bill explicitly lists categories such as labor, materials, dies, machinery use, and overhead.
The production costs for the gold medal are to be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund, and proceeds from bronze duplicate sales are to be deposited back into that same fund.Finally, the bill assigns legal status to the pieces: medals struck under the Act are national medals under chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code, and for purposes of section 5134 of title 31 they are treated as numismatic items. That classification governs how the Mint handles production, sales accounting, and internal fund charges, and it frames how museums, collectors, and federal custodians can treat the medals going forward.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill names Joel Motley III and Constance Royster as the recipients of the posthumous Congressional Gold Medal and directs congressional leaders to arrange the presentation.
It directs the Secretary of the Treasury to design and strike a gold medal that bears an image of Constance Baker Motley and an inscription of her name, with the Secretary determining the final design.
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicate bronze medals priced to cover production costs, specifically including labor, materials, dies, machinery, and overhead.
Medals produced under this Act are classified as national medals under 31 U.S.C. chapter 51 and are considered numismatic items for purposes of 31 U.S.C. 5134.
The bill authorizes charging medal production costs to the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund and requires proceeds from bronze duplicate sales to be deposited into that same fund.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Every bill we cover gets an analysis of its key sections.
Short title
Provides the act’s short title: the “Congressional Tribute to Constance Baker Motley Act of 2025.” This is purely formal but is the reference lawmakers and agencies will use in implementing and citing the measure.
Findings on Motley's life and service
Lists biographical and historical findings about Constance Baker Motley's education, NAACP LDF work, Supreme Court advocacy, political firsts in New York, and federal judgeship. While symbolic, these findings record Congress’s rationale and could inform inscriptions or accompanying materials produced with the medal.
Authorization to strike and present the gold medal; named recipients
Subsection (a) tasks the Speaker and the President pro tempore with arranging a posthumous presentation on behalf of Congress. Subsection (b) gives the Secretary of the Treasury authority to strike the gold medal and to set its emblems, devices, and inscriptions, with the design required to include Motley's image and name. Subsections (c) and (d) identify the presentation recipients (Joel Motley III and Constance Royster) and provide that the gold medal, after presentation, will be delivered to Joel Motley III. Practically, this places control over design and production with Treasury and reserves possession of the physical gold medal to a named private individual rather than a public institution.
Authority to strike and sell duplicate bronze medals
Grants the Secretary discretion to strike bronze duplicates of the gold medal and to sell them at a price sufficient to cover production costs. The section enumerates cost categories (labor, materials, dies, machinery use, overhead), making clear the sales are not profit-making commemorations but cost‑recovery mechanisms. The Secretary’s discretion includes decisions about mintage volumes, pricing strategy, and sale channels — choices that will determine public access and collector interest.
Legal status of medals
Designates medals struck under the Act as national medals under chapter 51 of title 31 and treats them as numismatic items for purposes of 31 U.S.C. 5134. That classification integrates these pieces into the Mint’s established legal and accounting framework for commemorative and numismatic issues, affecting recordkeeping, custody rules, and how the Mint markets or restricts sales.
Funding and proceeds
Authorizes the use of the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund to pay for medal costs and requires proceeds from bronze duplicate sales to be deposited into that fund. The provision avoids a new appropriation by using the Mint’s enterprise fund, but it also places initial cash‑flow and production exposure on that fund until sales recoup costs.
This bill is one of many.
Codify tracks hundreds of bills on Civil Rights across all five countries.
Explore Civil Rights in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- The Motley family (Joel Motley III and Constance Royster): The bill guarantees the family a physical gold medal and formal congressional recognition, providing a tangible family heirloom and preferred custody.
- Civil‑rights museums and historical institutions: The congressional findings and the medal increase public attention and can support exhibitions, fundraising, and educational programming about Motley’s legal and judicial legacy.
- Numismatists and private collectors: The authorized sale of bronze duplicates creates a limited, Mint‑backed collectible tied to a high‑profile honoree, increasing collector interest and offering a way for the public to own a commemorative piece.
- The United States Mint: The Mint gains another numismatic product to market and an opportunity to exercise its design and production functions, with costs expected to be recovered through duplicate sales.
- Scholars and educators focused on civil‑rights history: The congressional imprimatur and the physical medal provide primary artifacts and renewed visibility that can support scholarship and classroom materials.
Who Bears the Cost
- United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund: The fund bears initial outlays for the gold medal’s production and related expenses; it is the account charged for costs until bronze sales replenish it.
- The Department of the Treasury / Mint operations: Production, design review, administrative coordination, and sales logistics will consume staff time and operational capacity, potentially diverting resources from other Mint projects.
- Collectors and buyers of bronze duplicates: Buyers must purchase duplicates at a price set to fully cover production costs, so public ownership comes at cost rather than through subsidized distribution.
- Congressional offices coordinating the presentation: The Speaker’s and President pro tempore’s offices will need to allocate staff time and resources to organize the presentation event and liaise with the family and the Mint.
- Museums or institutions seeking long‑term public display of the gold medal: Because the Act directs the gold medal to the family, institutions wanting access may incur negotiation, travel, insurance, or borrowing costs to exhibit the piece.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between honoring a major civil‑rights figure through an exclusive, tradable national artifact and ensuring broad public access and accountability: Congress gives a single private heir the gold medal while authorizing the Mint to monetize public interest through bronze duplicates, forcing a choice between private possession and making a piece of national memory widely available under transparent, public‑facing terms.
The bill is principally symbolic, but it creates practical choices with trade‑offs. Charging the Mint Public Enterprise Fund instead of providing a direct appropriation limits immediate taxpayer outlays, yet places cash‑flow risk on the Mint if bronze duplicate sales fall short of expectations.
The Secretary retains broad discretion over design, mintage, pricing, and sale mechanisms; that discretion streamlines implementation but can generate disputes about artistic representation, edition size, and public access — especially because the Act names private recipients for the gold piece rather than directing placement in a public repository.
Classifying the medals as national medals and as numismatic items pulls them into existing statutory frameworks, which is administratively tidy but also means their treatment follows numismatic norms (sales, custody, pricing practices) rather than museum accession rules. The statute requires that bronze copies be sold at prices sufficient to cover detailed categories of cost, but it does not set limits on the number of duplicates or a transparent pricing formula, leaving open questions about how accessible those duplicates will be to the broader public.
Finally, the Act does not specify timelines, consultation requirements with family or civil‑rights organizations on design, or criteria for how many duplicates may be produced — practical gaps that the Mint will have to resolve in policy and practice.
Try it yourself.
Ask a question in plain English, or pick a topic below. Results in seconds.