President Biden Can Enshrine Equality, Equal Rights For Women Into Law: Direct Archivist To Certify Equal Rights Amendment

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STANDING WITH CHAMPIONS FOR EQUALITY, GILLIBRAND CALLS ON PRESIDENT BIDEN TO DIRECT ARCHIVIST TO CERTIFY EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

 

 

President Biden can enshrine reproductive rights for millions of women into law by directing the archivist of the United States to certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

 

Editor’s note: We previously covered this issue when the archivist declined to certify the ERA citing deadline restrictions which Senator Gillibrand stated were without proper legal precedent.  

In that article, she said in part, “First, the 2022 Office of Legal Counsel memo did not affirm that a deadline was valid and enforceable; rather, it said that the deadline remained an open legal question. Furthermore, it should be obvious that the Trump administration’s 2020 OLC memo was a political document, given its departure from prior OLC opinions and its problematic reliance on superseded and invalid precedent. Clearly, it was issued as an attempt to kill the ERA after it had met the necessary requirements for certification. Finally, the simple truth is that OLC memos are advisory in nature and can easily be disregarded by the current administration…”

The exact text of the amendment is: “Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

NEW YORK, NY – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stood with elected officials and advocates to call on President Biden to enshrine reproductive rights for millions of women into law by directing the archivist of the United States to certify the Equal Rights Amendment before the end of his presidency. After the Supreme Court issued the Dobbs decision in 2022, it has become increasingly important to publish the ERA as part of the U.S. Constitution. The amendment would instantly provide the most effective safeguards to post-Dobbs attacks on women’s health and would also serve as a bulwark against a national ban on abortion that President-elect Trump and congressional Republican leaders have threatened to enact.

 

 

 

The ERA has already fulfilled the criteria for certification: it was approved by two-thirds of Congress in 1972 and ratified by three-quarters of the states by 2020. The ERA is the only constitutional amendment ever proposed that has met the strict requirements, as spelled out in Article V, to be uniquely discriminated against and not certified and published by the archivist.

 

 

 

“President Biden has always been an advocate for women, and there is no better way to cement his legacy as president than to certify the Equal Rights Amendment,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. “During a time when women’s rights are under systematic attack, we need the Equal Rights Amendment now more than ever. Today, more than half of all Americans do not have equal protection under the law and do not have access to the full range of reproductive care. Certifying the Equal Rights Amendment will be our best chance to ensure our hard-won civil liberties – same-sex marriage, the right to reproductive health care, access to birth control, fertility treatments, contraception – cannot be eroded. I strongly urge President Biden to stand with the women of this country and do what is right.”

 


 

 

“With decades of progress on women’s rights standing on the precipice, I join Senator Gillibrand in appealing to President Biden for this urgent certification,” said New York State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, lead sponsor of the ERA to the NYS Constitution, which voters overwhelmingly enacted in the 2024 general election. “President Biden must seize this opportunity to repel looming efforts at upending our civil rights and shield the gains he has long championed.”

 

 

 

“The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) stands as a critical safeguard for women’s rights and is particularly significant to the future of women in this country, given the political horizon we are facing with the incoming administration. At this critical juncture, we all have a responsibility to the women who came before us to not only uphold and protect the rights secured, but to advance and institutionalize these rights in our government in the form of the Equal Rights Amendment. I am proud to join Senator Gillibrand’s call for President Biden to direct the archivist to certify the ERA, so it is enshrined in our country’s rights to serve as a bulwark against regressive policies and attacks on women’s rights,” said New York City Council Member Julie Menin, Co-Chair of the NYC Council’s Women’s Caucus.

 

 

 

“The ERA was drafted by NYU law grad Crystal Eastman over 100 years ago and unveiled in Seneca Falls, New York in 1923. So, the women of New York and this country have been fighting for over a century to get ourselves into our own constitution. It is now or never. President Biden is the only one who has the power—right now—to put us in the constitution where we belong. It cannot ever truly be the ‘people’s constitution’ until it reflects all of us,” said Kate Kelly, Center for American Progress.

 

 

 

The ERA was first proposed by Congress in 1923 as a constitutional amendment to guarantees equality of rights under the law for all persons regardless of sex. A federal ERA would establish the premise that sex-based distinctions in access to reproductive care would be unconstitutional. As such, abortion bans would violate a constitutional right to sex equality since such restrictions would single out women for unfair denial of medical treatment based on sex. State-level Equal Rights Amendments have already been successful in providing the constitutional basis for reproductive equality and have been historically successful in defending against legislative infringements on women’s reproductive freedom.

 

 

 

In August 2024, the American Bar Association expressed its support for implementing the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution in accordance with Article V.

Banner Image: Capital building. Image Credit – Joshua Sukoff


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