Biden: Make WOMEN & GIRLS EQUAL CITIZENS Today!
The Equal Rights Amendment provides equal rights for female and #LGBT people:
Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
I was inspired recently by a famous civil rights speech by President John F. Kennedy in 1963[1], when the country was fighting over providing civil rights, like voting, education and desegregated accommodations, to Americans regardless of race. Much of what he said applies to the last leg of the fight to provide equal rights for women in our Constitution.
The baton was passed to President Biden at his inauguration, and all he has to do, literally, is tell the U.S. Archivist to publish a new Constitution with the fully-ratified, legally-valid Equal Rights Amendment (“ERA”) as the 28th Amendment in it. The reasons are so similar to President Kennedy’s as you can see by my replacing that scenario and using many of his words [italicized herein] to show the urgent need for the ERA today, in part due to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v Wade.
Our country, for much of our 246 years, has been an example of Democracy to all the world. But as we begin 2023, we Americans should stop and examine our consciences about how important equality for all of our citizens is to a resilient Democracy.
This Nation, we have been taught, was founded by men, on the principle that all men are created equal, and great leaders throughout our history have said that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
Through the decades, we have been committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free and to have equal rights within their countries, including women.
Thus, here at least, it ought to be possible for every citizen to access healthcare, to obtain an education, to participate in any chosen profession, and to be paid fair wages, equivalent to men’s in the same jobs, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the streets. It ought to be possible for every citizen to have equality of rights without having to seek justice at every instance from the courts or to fear DEATH, arrest or exorbitant monetary repercussions.
It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American regardless of their sex. But half our population, WOMEN and GIRLS, are legally SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS.
Every girl born in America today, regardless of the section of the country in which she is born, has far less of a chance to complete high school or college or to be able to work in a profession in which she could otherwise have excelled, compared to a boy born in the same place on the same day, because she does not have the legal right to control her reproductive life. Back before the 1960’s, when birth control was illegal, many more girls got pregnant, causing them to drop out of school. In the day when a two-wage family is necessary for survival, you should wonder how many millions will fall into poverty, because one parent has to stay home with their six+ children for twelve to eighteen years. Think of how the GDP will plummet.
Girls will have far less chance to live a life of equal opportunity because President Biden has refused to fulfill his Constitutional duty, to take care that the laws are faithfully carried out, per Article II, Section 3 — dereliction of the same Constitutional duty that the January 6th Committee has just found that the former guy committed.
President Biden has been wearing the proverbial ruby slippers, with the power to make WOMEN and GIRLS FULL AND EQUAL CITIZENS today, with just one phone call or signature.
He has known he had, not just the power but also, the duty to tell the Executive Branch U.S. Archivist to follow the federal law[2], 1 United States Code Section 106b, that makes it mandatory for the Archivist to publish a new Constitutional Amendment immediately upon receiving certification that ¾ of the states have ratified it, which happened almost THREE YEARS AGO on January 27th, 2020.[3] There are NO LEGAL REASONS why President Biden cannot fulfill his promises or his Constitutional duty.[4]
Since Dobbs, Vice President Harris and President Biden have appeared to be trying to do everything they can to protect reproductive rights from draconian laws in some of the Red States. But he has not done the ONE THING he can do to fix it all immediately. Publishing the ERA will put all states and the Supreme Court on notice that THE ERA IS LEGALLY PART OF THE CONSTITUTION, THE HIGHEST LAW IN THE LAND and that it has been legally valid, per its Section 3, two years after ratification, since January 27, 2022.
The ERA is the TEXTUAL basis that Justice Alito said did not exist that provides women the right to control ALL their reproductive choices up until the viability of the fetus (roughly 24 weeks). The ERA will stop state and federal discrimination based on sex, which includes protecting ALL REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS. State Constitution’s ERAs have already been used to protect reproductive rights.[5] President Biden tweeted, “I am committed to doing everything in my power, including taking strong action like the Executive Order I signed today, to safeguard access to abortion care.” If true, then this should be an easy lift.
Further, the ERA also implicitly protects women’s Reproductive Choices, which include, but are not limited to: in vitro fertilization, contraception, treating ectopic pregnancies, getting a D&C after a miscarriage in every state and not having to wait until you are septic to do so, not having to be transported across state lines for any of these procedures, and abortion. The ERA moreover provides a fundamental right for women’s Reproductive Choices because, the ability of a woman to control her reproduction is a necessary element of her ability to be a full and equal citizen, which is the intent and the requirement of the ERA. The Supreme Court has ruled that “What is reasonably implied is as much a part of [the Constitution] as what is expressed.” Dillon v. Gloss, 256 U.S. 368, 373 (1921). See our May 16, 2022 MOTION in Dobbs FOR LEAVE TO FILE AN AMICUS BRIEF, on behalf of ERA-NC Alliance, for the legal arguments. [6].
In 2023, one hundred years of delay will have passed since the Equal Rights Amendment, written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman, was first filed in Congress by Susan B. Anthony’s nephew.
President Lincoln freed the slaves over 160 years ago. Yet NO American WOMEN or GIRLS have EVER been EQUAL CITIZENS, no matter their race or nationality — nor will any of Americans’ granddaughters, great-granddaughters, and so on, be fully free and equal unless President Biden acts NOW to fulfill his Constitutional duty, which would only take a phone call or a signature on an Executive Order directing the Archivist to publish the 28th Amendment, the Equal Rights Amendment, in an updated U.S. Constitution. [7].
We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for women and LGBT people; that we have no second-class citizens except for women and LGBT people; no master class except white men?
We face, therefore, a moral, economic, criminal justice, and yes, civil rights crisis as a country and as a people. A great change is at hand.
President Biden, your task, your obligation, and truly your HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY is to sign an Equality Proclamation, a proper subject for an Executive Order. Make all our daughters and granddaughters equal citizens for the first time. Prevent LGBT[9] people from losing their jobs or homes based on discrimination, just because they were born that way.
President Biden was the first and most important voice in the White House when he assuredly called for MARRIAGE EQUALITY in 2012. It was a BFD! Even though Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act, LGBT people as well as WOMEN and GIRLS need a textual Constitutional basis to protect laws that support us all and to prevent other significant women’s rights and LGBT rights Supreme Court cases from being overturned — except Dobbs — it will be a basis to overturn Dobbs! [8].
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[1] I put Pres. Kennedy’s words in italics throughout. See original text and video: https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/historic-speeches/televised-address-to-the-nation-on-civil-rights
[2] Read my 6-17-22 Letter to the White House Counsel (also sent to 2 top attorneys for VP Harris, & 5 other top women in the Biden Administration). https://adobe.ly/3buaFSa
[3] https://www.archives.gov/files/foia/pdf/era-list-of-state-ratification-actions-03-24-2020.pdf
[4] Michele Honora Thorne, Esq., A New Era for the ERA? Our 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, 36 CBA Rec. 31 (May-June 2022) [Explaining why the purported ERA Deadline has never been legally valid, nor are any Rescissions from any states. Ratifying an amendment is a one-way street. They cannot undo it. Ms. Thorne uses Justice Scalia’s “precision power tools” Textualist and Originalist reasons (that the ultra-conservative majority of the current Supreme Court uses) to prove why the Deadline and attempted state Rescissions are unconstitutional]. https://user-35215390377.cld.bz/CBA-Record-May-June-2022/31/
Ms. Thorne explains it in a Chicago Bar Continuing Legal Education video here: https://youtu.be/9rtRwfX-62w
[5] https://ShatteringGlass.org “How States Use their own ERAs/Equal Rights [state constitutional] Provisions to Protect Repro Rights.” https://8fdaf192-a63f-4cc1-ba48-30c5727fb699.usrfiles.com/ugd/8fdaf1_c838bc6d55bc442aa1da2fdfe69fdeb9.pdf
[6] See ftnt 8 for link.
[7] I drafted this handy Executive Order. https://adobe.ly/3tyeewD
[8] My sister, Gina Collias, Esq., and I (both ERA attorneys and thankfully members of the Supreme Court Bar), filed a MOTION in Dobbs (SCOTUS case #19-1392), on May 16, 2022, FOR LEAVE TO FILE AN AMICUS BRIEF, on behalf of ERA-NC Alliance, to argue based on the ERA TO SAVE REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS. You can read why the ERA saves Reproductive Rights and creates a Fundamental Right to Reproductive Rights in it. It was not allowed. http://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-1392/225397/20220516031348036_2022-05-16%20%2019-1932%20Dobbs%20v%20Jackson%20Womens%20Health%20Org%20-%20ERA-NC%20Alliance%20Amended%20Motion%20for%20Leave%20to%20File%20AC%20Brief%20w%20Ex%20A.pdf
[9] In my legal opinion (“IMLO”), I think that the #ERA will save LGBTI rights, but I don’t add the QIA, because to prove discrimination based on sex, the “class” of people have to have clear cut immutable (unchangeable) characteristics, which IMLO can be proven by expert witnesses based on physical, genetic or psychological evidence or by facts that cannot be altered, like race or national origin, which I think QA cannot prove because the these are less legally clear cut. Intersex people IMLO will definitely be protected by the ERA, but since the common acronym is LGBTQIA, NOT LGBTI, I’m only using #LGBT.
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LEGAL NOTICE: THE ONLY PATH TO GET THE ERA PUBLISHED IS FOR PRESIDENT BIDEN TO DO HIS JOB! It is too late for Sen. Majority Leader Schumer to take a vote on any ERA RESOLUTION, because the GOP has the House! He knows that it’s a new Congress, and any new resolution would have to pass both the Senate (which didn’t vote before because of the filibuster rule, that still applies) and the House. The lawmakers’ [Maloney, Bush, Chu, Kaptur and Moore] December 21, 2022 ERA statement said, “Majority Leader Schumer has committed to meeting with advocates at the top of the new year and stated that he will aim to hold a vote on the ERA before the end of next March.” It was an insult for Sen. Schumer to even dangle a Senate vote by April 2023. The Statement, from what Ms. Published, did NOT say that a Senate vote in 2023 would get the ERA in the Constitution, because they know it means nothing.
All ERA SUPPORTERS IN THE 118th CONGRESS need to go en masse, with press, and tell President Biden to DO HIS JOB! I’m shocked that Ms. put out such misinformation, giving ERA supporters false hope! Read all above for the ONLY PATH, and the CORRECT PATH, TO GET THE ERA PUBLISHED.