Equal Rights Amendment

GASBR Welcomes Stein Pledge on ERA; Expects More from a Green Candidate

GASBR Welcomes Stein Pledge on ERA
Expects More from a Green Candidate

Last week, Dr. Jill Stein, a candidate for the Green Party nomination for President of the United States at a campaign event at a home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, stated “We would do that on day one for sure”, in response to a question on the Equal Rights Amendment, indicating her support.   

“While we welcome this first public statement from her campaign on this subject”, we expect much more from the presumptive nominee of a self-described feminist political party,” said Carol A. Bouldin, Co-Chair of the Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights.  “It is not enough that she responds to questions on the subject.  Women in the United States need Dr. Stein to lead on this issue and incorporate it into her stump speech at every appearance in order to educate voters and demand immediate action from the current administration, long before the polls open for the November election.”

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GASBR’s ERA Task Force has for months been communicating with Jill Stein about the Constitutional Crisis facing this nation and the political opportunity available to her campaign in this historic moment.  GASBR has been asking Stein to educate her campaign supporters and the public about the Trump and Biden Administrations’ obstruction of the ministerial duty of the National Archivist, in defiance of their oath of office to serve and protect the Constitution, including the Article V. provisions governing how it is amended.   

Cori Bush Urges Merrick Garland Repudiate OLC Letter directing National Archivist to Ignore Statutory Duty to Acknowledge Ratification of Equal Rights Amendment

Last week Representative Corey Bush (D, MO) used her 5 minutes to question Attorney General Merrick Garland as an opportunity to urge the repudiation of the Trump administration's Office of Legal Counsel's letter directing the National Archivist to ignore her statutory duty to acknowledge the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

NOW-PAC Squanders Political Capital; Undermines Own Mission, Opportunity to Demand Equality for Women

NOW-PAC Squanders Political Capital
Undermines Own Mission, Opportunity to Demand Equality for Women

Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights organizes for an independent politics

As primary opponent Marianne Williamson used her keynote address on Friday to the Georgia chapter of NOW to pledge day one action to instruct the National Archivist to publish the Equal Rights Amendment, the “political action committee of the National Organization for Women (NOW), announced . . . it is endorsing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for reelection in 2024.”

In their announcement, NOW’s National President sought to deceive her own membership and the voting public, claiming “This is our earliest endorsement for a presidential re-election campaign because the Biden-Harris administration has and continues to place women’s issues at the forefront, not through words but through actions.”

Yet, the Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights has repeatedly pointed out that both the actions and the inactions of the Biden Administration have created a Constitutional Crisis, and are evidence of President Biden’s failure in his Constitutional duty to see that the laws of the nation are faithfully executed.

“Women have been betrayed long enough by operatives in the non-profit sector who have prioritized their own partisan loyalties over their organization’s stated missions to work for the interests of women,” said Carol Bouldin of California, a co-chair of the Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights.  The Alliance exists to “organiz(e) political action independent of the corporate parties”.  

GASBR Welcomes Marianne Williamson Pledge for Day-One Action to instruct Archivist to Publish the Equal Rights Amendment

Marianne Williamson Pledges Day-One Action
To instruct Archivist to Publish the Equal Rights Amendment

Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights welcomes her leadership

At the state conference of the Georgia Chapter of the National Organization for Women, held Friday, August 25th, 2023 in Stockbridge Georgia, Marianne Williamson, a candidate for the Democratic Party’s 2024 Presidential nomination, told attendees: “On day one of my Presidency, I will call the archivist and command the publication of the Equal Rights Amendment.”  These remarks were made during a Q&A session following her lunchtime keynote address to the conference.  

The ERA achieved final ratification in January 2020 and enjoys vast public support.  The Biden Administration has created a constitutional crisis, by refusing to do what Marianne Williamson on Friday pledged to do: put women’s equality in the Constitution once and for all.  

Attorneys for the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice even fought against the ERA in two federal lawsuits – in Massachusetts and Washington DC.  The lawsuits were filed in January 2020 when Trump was in office. They were designed to compel the National Archivist to comply with federal law that mandates the Archivist to publish new constitutional amendments “forthwith,” as soon as the last necessary state ratifies.  (Title 1 US Code Section 106b).  

Marianne Williamson Pledges Day-One Action to Publish the Equal Rights Amendment
Marianne Williamson Pledges Day-One Action to Publish the Equal Rights Amendment

Attorney Mary Mahoney offers oral arguments for Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust for recognition that ERA has already been ratified.

This is how Wendy Murphy described this hearing on her twitter feed:

Incredible job today in court by ERA Attorney Mary Mahoney from Michigan! Really powerful oral argument in support of the ERA and full equality for all #Women! Thanks to leading Women’s rights group Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust for its fierce leadership!

 

Publish the ERA, Let the Skirmishes Begin

Prominent constitutional scholars argue that the ERA time limit was advisory only, as it was not in the text of the amendment. They also say that the five states which rescinded their approval of the ERA many years after approving it have no settled right to rescind (at least two states tried to rescind the 14th amendment, to no avail). Article V, which lays out precisely the steps to add an amendment to the Constitution, says nothing about time limits. Congress added them for several amendments in the 20th century to increase its own power and control. But those time limits were all added to the text of those amendments. Not so the ERA.

. . .

The ERA needs to be published. Then we can all make popcorn and watch the legal skirmishes commence. But once published, it will be up to conservatives to prove why equality for women should continue to be excluded from the constitution of the world’s oldest democracy.

National ERA March for Ratification and Extension
National ERA March for Ratification and Extension

Women's eNews: President Biden: Why Won’t You Publish The Equal Rights Amendment?

President Biden: Why Won’t You Publish The Equal Rights Amendment?

The Biden Administration is actually going into court and fighting against the Equal Rights Amendment, a right which would have saved Roe v. Wade.

Caitlin Rich
November 6, 2022

President Biden has failed to support the publication of the Equal Rights Amendment
President Biden has failed to support the publication of the Equal Rights Amendment

“We must recognize the clear will of the American people and definitively enshrine the principle of gender equality in the Constitution. It is long past time that we put all doubt to rest. I am calling on Congress to act immediately to pass a resolution recognizing ratification of the ERA.”

President Joseph Biden Jr.

This statement, released by President Biden two years after the state of Virginia’s ratification, is being labeled “clear duplicity” by Nicole Vorrasi Bates, attorney and founder of Shattering Glass. Although Biden has implied Congress is responsible for recognizing the Equal Rights Amendment, many politicians, lawyers and even scholars question why the Executive Branch has still not published it. Most recently, the DC Court of Appeals heard the oral arguments for Illinois v. Ferriero, but to this, Vorrasi Bates says, “The Biden Administration is actually going into court and fighting against the Equal Rights Amendment, a right which would have saved Roe v. Wade.”

Illinois v. Ferriero and the DC Court of Appeals 

USA-Today: Remind me why the Biden administration is in court fighting publication of the ERA?

Image removed.The publication of the Equal Rights Amendment is a simple ministerial action and should have happened when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it in 2020.

A woman holds up a sign as members of Congress and representatives of women's groups rally in 2012 to mark the 40th anniversary of congressional passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. The amendment included what the Congressional Research Service calls a "customary, but not constitutionally mandatory," seven-year deadline for ratification by three-fourths of the states.
  • Women's rights are not enshrined in the Constitution. The ERA was supposed to change that.
  • By 2020, the ERA had the 38 ratifications necessary for it to become the 28th Amendment.
  • Publication of the ERA is a simple action and should have happened when Virginia became the latest state to ratify it.

FIST Publishes brochure on ERA

See attached.

#PublishERAJoe!

The ERA would end women’s second-class citizenship by finally giving women equal standing in the federal CONSTITUTION, thus would ensure women’s equal TREATMENT under all laws, regulations, and policies of state and federal governments.

The ERA would afford women equal treatment under the DUE PROCESS CLAUSE and the EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE, which affect all other rights including everything from obtaining a dog license to the First Amendment, LIBERTY, etc. These fundamental constitutional rights ensure that all people enjoy the most basic freedoms: autonomy, self-determination, authority over the self, bodily integrity, etc. Without the ERA, women cannot be assured that any rights will apply equally to them.

The ERA would require courts to use strict scrutiny when reviewing claims involving different treatment of women. Without the ERA, courts are allowed to use only intermediate scrutiny, which, unlike strict scrutiny, permits infringements on rights.

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