There was the story of the 27th Amendment: https://constitution.laws.com/27th-amendment, which took many, many, many decades to be ratified and then added to our Constitution. No, it didn't have an artificial (not part of the 28th Amendment itself, merely imposed on it) deadline, or extension of same--it was allowed to languish for decades and very gradually become ratified, and then more time went by and someone figured out it could be added officially by the Archivist and so it was done. This "Oh no, too bad, so sad, you ladies didn't get your Amendment because you couldn't ratify in time" is UTTER BS!!!! ENOUGH. GETTER DONE! Honestly, if it isn't the foot-dragging of the males, the internalized misogyny of the females is head-hitting-one's-desk INFURIATING! For me, I'm tired of being a mule for the Democrats to get into power, only to be ignored after they are there. So as much as I think Biden did a lot of good for the PEOPLE of this country, I think he shouldn't have pissed on us and told us it's raining.
What would it have hurt Biden to demand the archivist publish the amendment? It’s the least he could have done for announcing last minute… I find this final hour “belief “ announcement to be lacking. A half effort. Please continue the discussion and any developments. I would support anyone suing and using the basis of sex and this amendment as legal argument .
"John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life, told WaPo their goal is 'to tell dads that if you’re the father of a child victim of an abortion ...' "
The only "child victim" of an abortion is the already living one whose mother dies because she couldn't get one.
Politicians are not medical providers. I'm tired of hearing them say of horrific situations "this wasn't our intention". Maybe not, but these are the outcomes. Change course and get back in your own lane.
Biden’s statement that he ‘believes’ the ERA is the law of the land comes so disappointingly late. He could have done this in 2020. I had so hoped and longed for a sense of absolute victory, but the acknowledgment of the 28th Amendment seems so uncertain. Gills Rand has been great on this & reminded me/us yesterday that many amendments were challenged after ratification— the 14th & the 19th. So the 28th was always going to end up in the courts.
I agree. He could do more but it's just optics. Once again rights for Women/Girls get no substantial improvement. We all know the saying, 'all it takes for evil to thrive is for 'good men' to do nothing. ' These so called 'good men' need to grow some ovaries and get serious.
Even if all this does is get the ERA into the public discourse, l look forward to seeing them all squirm as they try to defend not ratifying. That will be delightful: make them say women are not equal!
As far as the states wanting to rescind…no fucking way. “ no backs, no takes, no gives”!
I would love to file a suit based on the ERA and equal health care. As an OBGyn in Texas, I have standing.
However I don’t have a billion to fight Paxton and Abbott
Typical Biden when it comes to women’s rights: a day late and a dollar short. Empty lip service with no work to back it up. His administration could have been working on this, he could have used his bully pulpit and said something before the 11th hour. I’m glad he finally said something under pressure, and I hope his words will be useful in the legal fight, but he gets no cookie from me.
Like Jessica said I’m stunned. How many people are going to know that Texas in its committed quest to be the worst is actually doing. Aggrieved husbands have no interest in caring for this so called child if they had the opportunity. In fact pregnancy is a chief way abusing men manipulate and control their partner. I listened to an npr story where a woman who was pregnant as a result of rape and the rapist sued for custody and got it. Then he used controlling, of the child she decided to keep as a further way to abuse her. His weapon of choice? To threaten to take full custody if she didn’t accede to his demands. The most horrific part was hearing the lawyer explain why that was actually possible and that parental rights in some states extend to rapists.
So I’m not surprised by this, but why isn’t this the story far and wide?
Thank you for touching on the ERA. I still don’t completely understand all the law/lawyer-ness of it (not a lawyer ha), but what I really don’t understand is if we were already protected (as I understand we should be, duh) how did Roe fall? Why has no one challenged it this way yet? Also, how can we fight that in court with this Supreme Court and other gremlin judges now woven throughout the country? Perhaps it’s a long game that has potential to be stronger? I’ve heard that if we passed the ERA now it would be weak and open to attack. I still think Biden is just a Catholic too.
Not a lawyer but I’ve followed the story for years. The problem with ratifying the original amendment was they put a clock on it. So because it failed to be ratified in time, it was said by some to get it passed as an amendment it would have to start over and reintroduce the amendment which in our current climate would never manage to get the majorities needed under 2/3rds of both houses and 3/4 of the states. Legal scholars were a little vague about whether it could be certified without doing that. Made it seem like it was up to the courts and then it wasn’t mentioned much.
Thank you. That all sounds correct. The reality is so incredibly depressing really. I know that Ruth Bader Ginsburg believed that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment would have better protected abortion rights than privacy. She was correct.
Biden still has two days in office. It’s not too late to replace the current Archivist with an Acting National Archivist who is willing to certify the ERA’s adoption.
I called the White House switchboard last week to say this very thing and was hung up on — twice.
The White House shut down their email and their comments phone line about a week before Christmas leaving a message that they would be open again after Jan 1. It never happened. I think they were inundated by calls to publish the ERA.
This news about what Desantis is doing in Florida is chilling. Anyone have ideas on how we can at least spread the word to people who live in Florida that this is happening because I guarantee that the average person living there has no clue- and if they did they would (should) be furious.
The ERA IS the 28th Amendment. It has met all requirements of Article V of the Constitution. All 400K lawyers of the American Bar Assoc agree.
The certification of the archivist is merely ministerial- only one previous amendment has been certified by the archivist.
Read Laurence Tribe’s substack from today -
Money quote: It is not necessary for the National Archivist to publish the ERA in order for it to be adopted according to the provisions of the Constitution. The President avoided triggering a clash with the Archivist, who recently announced her intention to defy her statutory, and purely ministerial, duty to publish the ERA. The only reason Congress gave the Archivist such a duty nearly a century ago was to ensure that the Nation got word that an amendment was in force, enabling officials at all levels of government to conform their actions to it. In our modern age of broadcast, cable and internet communication, the President’s announcement itself performed that function.
As I understand it, in 2020, a memo from the office of legal counsel said that the deadline for ratifying the ERA had passed and even though the 38 required states had ratified the ERA, it didn’t count.
As I understand it from Constitutional lawyers like Lawrence Tribe and Jill Winebanks, there are no time restrictions. For people saying that some states, governed by the GOP, want to rescind their votes, they can’t. It’s not doable under our Constitution. Once a state ratifies, it’s ratified.
It’s also not the Archivist’s job to weigh in and block the Amendment. The job is purely ministerial and this Archivist is out of line.
All of this is bs thrown at us in the usual bs fashion (think Judge Cannon weighing in on Jack Smith’s decision to release his report when the judge had no standing) to confuse everyone and stymie us. I wish Biden had done something four years ago so that then he could have fired the Archivist and her deputy for cause when they refused to do their jobs. It simply wasn’t important to Biden or his advisors.
But at least now, we can engage the battle. For people saying we should wait until we have a different Supreme Court, I say bullshit. I’m glad to have this argument now. The GOP will have to say women and LGBTQ + people are not equal to white men.
So let’s go! It’s a fight well worth having. Let’s honor the 100+ years of working towards equality.
Agree and it’s disappointing that he waited this long to address this after campaigning on it. Holding onto hope until there’s none, but not holding my breath. He has had a full plate these past few years, but he could be more pro-active about the ERA now and it’s reminiscent of his religious beliefs standing in the way of verbally taking a strong pro-choice stance. I agree with you. Bring the lawsuits & let’s go. As far as Paxton goes, we will need independent media, researchers, $ and all of us to stand by abused women and flip those scripts or at least even the playing field by exposing “the other side of the story.” They want fear to prevail. We want autonomy & equality to prevail. Bring that on too.
After Harris running on women’s rights and then being completely silent on the ERA since losing in November, I have become cynical about the Dems. They like the issue of women’s rights, but like Trump with immigration, the Dems want to run on women’s rights, not actually secure them. They let Roe be overturned and they let the ERA languish to the point that a lot of thoughtful people think we will lose the 100+ years of work and have to start from scratch. But I think we need the fight now so that it’s clear to everyone that there IS a war on women.
Lawrence Tribe wrote a piece today for The Contrarian. He says it’s in effect, but given the control of SCOTUS by the revanchist, crusader catholic, FedSoc 6, nothing is sure at this point.
The same Office of Legal Counsel, under Garland, wrote an opinion stating that the Barr opinion was incorrect and that, beause it wasn’t part of the Amendment’s text, the deadline was invalid and without force.
There was the story of the 27th Amendment: https://constitution.laws.com/27th-amendment, which took many, many, many decades to be ratified and then added to our Constitution. No, it didn't have an artificial (not part of the 28th Amendment itself, merely imposed on it) deadline, or extension of same--it was allowed to languish for decades and very gradually become ratified, and then more time went by and someone figured out it could be added officially by the Archivist and so it was done. This "Oh no, too bad, so sad, you ladies didn't get your Amendment because you couldn't ratify in time" is UTTER BS!!!! ENOUGH. GETTER DONE! Honestly, if it isn't the foot-dragging of the males, the internalized misogyny of the females is head-hitting-one's-desk INFURIATING! For me, I'm tired of being a mule for the Democrats to get into power, only to be ignored after they are there. So as much as I think Biden did a lot of good for the PEOPLE of this country, I think he shouldn't have pissed on us and told us it's raining.
What would it have hurt Biden to demand the archivist publish the amendment? It’s the least he could have done for announcing last minute… I find this final hour “belief “ announcement to be lacking. A half effort. Please continue the discussion and any developments. I would support anyone suing and using the basis of sex and this amendment as legal argument .
"John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life, told WaPo their goal is 'to tell dads that if you’re the father of a child victim of an abortion ...' "
The only "child victim" of an abortion is the already living one whose mother dies because she couldn't get one.
These people are utterly vile.
Politicians are not medical providers. I'm tired of hearing them say of horrific situations "this wasn't our intention". Maybe not, but these are the outcomes. Change course and get back in your own lane.
I keep wondering why someone can't sue these legislators for practicing medicine without a license.
Biden’s statement that he ‘believes’ the ERA is the law of the land comes so disappointingly late. He could have done this in 2020. I had so hoped and longed for a sense of absolute victory, but the acknowledgment of the 28th Amendment seems so uncertain. Gills Rand has been great on this & reminded me/us yesterday that many amendments were challenged after ratification— the 14th & the 19th. So the 28th was always going to end up in the courts.
I agree. He could do more but it's just optics. Once again rights for Women/Girls get no substantial improvement. We all know the saying, 'all it takes for evil to thrive is for 'good men' to do nothing. ' These so called 'good men' need to grow some ovaries and get serious.
Even if all this does is get the ERA into the public discourse, l look forward to seeing them all squirm as they try to defend not ratifying. That will be delightful: make them say women are not equal!
As far as the states wanting to rescind…no fucking way. “ no backs, no takes, no gives”!
I would love to file a suit based on the ERA and equal health care. As an OBGyn in Texas, I have standing.
However I don’t have a billion to fight Paxton and Abbott
Mackenzie Scott, do you read us?
Typical Biden when it comes to women’s rights: a day late and a dollar short. Empty lip service with no work to back it up. His administration could have been working on this, he could have used his bully pulpit and said something before the 11th hour. I’m glad he finally said something under pressure, and I hope his words will be useful in the legal fight, but he gets no cookie from me.
Please find the excellent presser from Senator Gillibrand from yesterday- Everything you need to know about the ERA
We have it storied on our account @voteequality.us
Like Jessica said I’m stunned. How many people are going to know that Texas in its committed quest to be the worst is actually doing. Aggrieved husbands have no interest in caring for this so called child if they had the opportunity. In fact pregnancy is a chief way abusing men manipulate and control their partner. I listened to an npr story where a woman who was pregnant as a result of rape and the rapist sued for custody and got it. Then he used controlling, of the child she decided to keep as a further way to abuse her. His weapon of choice? To threaten to take full custody if she didn’t accede to his demands. The most horrific part was hearing the lawyer explain why that was actually possible and that parental rights in some states extend to rapists.
So I’m not surprised by this, but why isn’t this the story far and wide?
Thank you for touching on the ERA. I still don’t completely understand all the law/lawyer-ness of it (not a lawyer ha), but what I really don’t understand is if we were already protected (as I understand we should be, duh) how did Roe fall? Why has no one challenged it this way yet? Also, how can we fight that in court with this Supreme Court and other gremlin judges now woven throughout the country? Perhaps it’s a long game that has potential to be stronger? I’ve heard that if we passed the ERA now it would be weak and open to attack. I still think Biden is just a Catholic too.
PS: DeSantis is the MOST EVIL of them all.
Not a lawyer but I’ve followed the story for years. The problem with ratifying the original amendment was they put a clock on it. So because it failed to be ratified in time, it was said by some to get it passed as an amendment it would have to start over and reintroduce the amendment which in our current climate would never manage to get the majorities needed under 2/3rds of both houses and 3/4 of the states. Legal scholars were a little vague about whether it could be certified without doing that. Made it seem like it was up to the courts and then it wasn’t mentioned much.
Thank you. That all sounds correct. The reality is so incredibly depressing really. I know that Ruth Bader Ginsburg believed that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment would have better protected abortion rights than privacy. She was correct.
Biden still has two days in office. It’s not too late to replace the current Archivist with an Acting National Archivist who is willing to certify the ERA’s adoption.
I called the White House switchboard last week to say this very thing and was hung up on — twice.
The White House shut down their email and their comments phone line about a week before Christmas leaving a message that they would be open again after Jan 1. It never happened. I think they were inundated by calls to publish the ERA.
This news about what Desantis is doing in Florida is chilling. Anyone have ideas on how we can at least spread the word to people who live in Florida that this is happening because I guarantee that the average person living there has no clue- and if they did they would (should) be furious.
Chilling is an understatement.DeSantis’ is cloaking his Special Session as all about immigration.It’s also about banning abortion in a covert way.
If you haven’t already done so I would recommend signing up with Floridians For Reproductive Freedom weekly newsletter.
https://progressflorida.actionkit.com/signup/frf-grassroots-signup/
Also, follow Rep Anna Eskamani,a fearless abortion-rights warrior!
The ERA IS the 28th Amendment. It has met all requirements of Article V of the Constitution. All 400K lawyers of the American Bar Assoc agree.
The certification of the archivist is merely ministerial- only one previous amendment has been certified by the archivist.
Read Laurence Tribe’s substack from today -
Money quote: It is not necessary for the National Archivist to publish the ERA in order for it to be adopted according to the provisions of the Constitution. The President avoided triggering a clash with the Archivist, who recently announced her intention to defy her statutory, and purely ministerial, duty to publish the ERA. The only reason Congress gave the Archivist such a duty nearly a century ago was to ensure that the Nation got word that an amendment was in force, enabling officials at all levels of government to conform their actions to it. In our modern age of broadcast, cable and internet communication, the President’s announcement itself performed that function.
As I understand it, in 2020, a memo from the office of legal counsel said that the deadline for ratifying the ERA had passed and even though the 38 required states had ratified the ERA, it didn’t count.
As I understand it from Constitutional lawyers like Lawrence Tribe and Jill Winebanks, there are no time restrictions. For people saying that some states, governed by the GOP, want to rescind their votes, they can’t. It’s not doable under our Constitution. Once a state ratifies, it’s ratified.
It’s also not the Archivist’s job to weigh in and block the Amendment. The job is purely ministerial and this Archivist is out of line.
All of this is bs thrown at us in the usual bs fashion (think Judge Cannon weighing in on Jack Smith’s decision to release his report when the judge had no standing) to confuse everyone and stymie us. I wish Biden had done something four years ago so that then he could have fired the Archivist and her deputy for cause when they refused to do their jobs. It simply wasn’t important to Biden or his advisors.
But at least now, we can engage the battle. For people saying we should wait until we have a different Supreme Court, I say bullshit. I’m glad to have this argument now. The GOP will have to say women and LGBTQ + people are not equal to white men.
So let’s go! It’s a fight well worth having. Let’s honor the 100+ years of working towards equality.
Agree and it’s disappointing that he waited this long to address this after campaigning on it. Holding onto hope until there’s none, but not holding my breath. He has had a full plate these past few years, but he could be more pro-active about the ERA now and it’s reminiscent of his religious beliefs standing in the way of verbally taking a strong pro-choice stance. I agree with you. Bring the lawsuits & let’s go. As far as Paxton goes, we will need independent media, researchers, $ and all of us to stand by abused women and flip those scripts or at least even the playing field by exposing “the other side of the story.” They want fear to prevail. We want autonomy & equality to prevail. Bring that on too.
After Harris running on women’s rights and then being completely silent on the ERA since losing in November, I have become cynical about the Dems. They like the issue of women’s rights, but like Trump with immigration, the Dems want to run on women’s rights, not actually secure them. They let Roe be overturned and they let the ERA languish to the point that a lot of thoughtful people think we will lose the 100+ years of work and have to start from scratch. But I think we need the fight now so that it’s clear to everyone that there IS a war on women.
Lawrence Tribe wrote a piece today for The Contrarian. He says it’s in effect, but given the control of SCOTUS by the revanchist, crusader catholic, FedSoc 6, nothing is sure at this point.
The same Office of Legal Counsel, under Garland, wrote an opinion stating that the Barr opinion was incorrect and that, beause it wasn’t part of the Amendment’s text, the deadline was invalid and without force.
There was a great Substack by Lawrence Tribe & Kathleen Sullivan that explains a lot “The Equal Rights Amendment at Long Last”