Audrey Muck

ERA-NC at Women’s Marches

May 31, 2022 by Audrey Muck 1 Comment

The ERA-NC Alliance was at many of North Carolina’s Women’s Marches on May 14th. We were there to draw attention to the fact that women’s lack of Constitutional protection has led to what may be the overturning of Roe v. Wade. If forced pregnancy isn’t sex discrimination, what is?

Asheville, NC

Asheville Citizen-Times coverage

Alliance Co-President, Jimmie Cochran Pratt made a brief statement to a crowd of more than 200, emphasizing the need for the Equal Rights Amendment to protect women from having their rights stripped away.

Charlotte, NC

The Rally had approximately 2000 people attend. Speakers included Lori Bunton, Co-President of the ERA-NC Alliance who spoke about how the ERA could help protect all reproductive rights and asked the rally goers to sign a petition to President Biden asking him to instruct the National Archivist to publish the ERA and announce that the ERA is the 28th Amendment. In addition, NCGA Legislator Rachel Hunt spoke about the need to not allow the Republicans to have a Super Majority this fall as they could override vetoes from Gov Cooper.

Salisbury

Salisbury Post news coverage

Board member, Pat Sledge attended the Rowan County march and reports that a number of young women took the mic and addressed the crowd. The white male social studies teacher mentioned in the article pointed out that the people trying to take away women‘s rights are, for the most part, white men.

Winston-Salem

Winston-Salem Journal coverage

WGHP coverage

Alliance Treasurer, Audrey Muck, spoke to the crowd of roughly 400 people in Winston-Salem. In her speech, she called the leaked draft Supreme Court ruling a disaster – especially for women of color, low-income and rural women. “This is judicial activism at its worst,” she said. “They are determined to put their thumbs on the scales to prefer potential life over the lives of living breathing women.”

SCOTUS: follow the ERA in Dobbs

May 16, 2022 by Audrey Muck 1 Comment

To save reproductive rights, ERA-NC Alliance demands SCOTUS follow the

Equal Rights Amendment/28th Amendment in Dobbs decision

Court motions filed in Supreme Court today

Raleigh — In a Supreme Court filing on Monday, the ERA-NC Alliance argued that the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is wrongly decided because it fails to consider the 28th Amendment/Equal Rights Amendment, which was added to the U.S. Constitution in January 2020 and became effective Jan. 27, 2022.

“We are stunned that the Court did not consider the most important language in the Constitution, the actual text of the ERA,” Lori Bunton, co-president of the Alliance, said. “We knew that we had to do something to alert the Supreme Court and try to stop this travesty before the Dobbs opinion is issued.”

“Women are going to lose their lives if the Supreme Court refuses to protect our rights to make our own reproductive decisions,” said Jimmie Cochran Pratt, also co-president. “We have learned that not only abortion will be banned, but it’s also likely birth control and the abortion pill. Even people who have ectopic pregnancies could die without the right to have those fetuses safely removed.”

The ERA-NC Alliance asked the court to allow it to file an amicus brief regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and for a time extension in light of the recently leaked Supreme Court draft majority opinion in Dobbs, which uses Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban to decimate women’s reproductive rights and to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The Alliance argues that Justice Samuel Alito, who positions himself as one of at least five textualists on the Supreme Court, relied on archaic legal theories that predated the U.S. Constitution, in order to justify his draft opinion.

The ERA was fully ratified on Jan. 27, 2020, but former President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr blocked the National Archivist from completing his mandatory duty, which requires the Archivist to certify the 38 states’ ratifications.

ERA-NC Alliance’s motions set out that since Section 3 of the 28th Amendment had a two-year delay for it to become effective, it just became effective on Jan. 27, 2022, after the deadlines for filing briefs in the case and after the December oral arguments.

“If these five Justices claim they are textualists, then they need to follow the text of all the Constitution, including the 28th Amendment, which by its plain language, ‘Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,’ ensures that abortion and other reproductive rights are protected, because Mississippi doesn’t have a law interfering with men’s reproductive rights. There is no Mississippi law making men or boys get vasectomies,” said Arlaine Rockey, an attorney for the Alliance.

“The ERA requires that the courts apply strict scrutiny to prevent the discrimination of women in the Dobbs case,” said Alliance co-counsel Gina Collias. “The intent and requirement of the ERA is to make sure that women are equal citizens, so the ERA implies that women have a fundamental right to reproductive choice.”

“President Biden has a Constitutional duty to make sure that laws are faithfully carried out, according to Article II, Section 3, of the U.S. Constitution,” said Rockey. “The Constitution is the highest law in our country, so the President has a duty to direct the Archivist to certify and publish the ERA immediately. He promised women in his campaign that he would enshrine women’s equality in the Constitution, yet he has failed to follow through. With just one signature, he could make women equal citizens for the first time in hundreds of years.”

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ERA-NC Alliance is a statewide North Carolina 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by North Carolina and working in collaboration with the national organizations and individuals in reaching this goal. The Alliance is comprised of respected women’s organizations including National Organization for Women NC, American Association of University Women NC and the North Carolina League of Women Voters.

See most recent articles regarding purported ERA deadline and rescinding states, and why the ERA provides a fundamental right to reproductive choice at https://ArlaineRockey.com/equal-rights-for-women

ERA Status Presentation

May 11, 2022 by Audrey Muck Leave a Comment

ERA-NC Alliance Co-President, Lori Bunton, recently recorded a new video about the current status of the Equal Rights Amendment.

2022 Precinct Resolutions

February 10, 2022 by Audrey Muck Leave a Comment

ERA Support Resolution

It’s that time again – time for precincts across the state to pass resolutions encouraging our political parties to support North Carolina ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment!

Here is a resolution you can download and introduce at your precinct meetings – it’s completely non-partisan, just like equal protection under the Constitution for all Americans is non-partisan.

2022 ERA Precinct Resolution

Gendered Citizenship

February 10, 2022 by Audrey Muck Leave a Comment

Lunch and Learn with the Alliance

Thursday, February 17, Noon

“Gendered Citizenship” book discussion

Join us for an informative discussion with historian and author, Rebecca DeWolf, Ph.D. Her book, “Gendered Citizenship,” is the first comprehensive study of the original conflict over the Equal Rights Amendment.

A New Day for the ERA

January 27, 2022 by Audrey Muck Leave a Comment

The Equal Rights Amendment, which was introduced nearly 100 years ago, became enforceable as the 28th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution on Thursday, Jan. 27. The amendment, passed in January 2020 when Virginia became the final state to ratify, gave federal and state governments exactly two years to bring their statutes into alignment.

Equal rights advocates and state legislators put the North Carolina General Assembly on notice Thursday that most state statutes need review under the newly enforceable 28th Amendment/ERA.

Rise Up for ERA!

November 26, 2021 by Audrey Muck 2 Comments

Watch our latest video campaign in partnership with the national ERA Coalition!

Let’s Speak Up
Let’s Step Up
Let’s refuse to shut up until the ERA is no longer held up
Let’s Ramp up and Sister Up for the change we deserve
And the Equality we should have been born into
So that our daughters and their daughters will be
Let’s Shake Up
Let’s Stand Up
Let’s Woman Up
Let’s do it Right Now!
Rise Up for ERA

Action: Rescind Barr Memo

November 7, 2021 by Audrey Muck Leave a Comment

Urge the Office of Legal Counsel to rescind Barr memo to Archivist

Take action! The ERA-NC Alliance urges everyone to immediately ask Christopher Schroeder, left, the newly appointed Assistant Attorney General overseeing the Office of Legal Counsel, to rescind the 2020 memo to the National Archivist. That memo, sent during U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr’s tenure, effectively stopped National Archivist David Ferriero from publishing the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The ERA met all constitutional requirements when Virginia became the 38th and final state needed to ratify on January 27, 2020.

Statement on Texas SB8

September 13, 2021 by Audrey Muck Leave a Comment

ERA-NC Alliance condemns actions
of Texas Legislature and Supreme Court

The ERA-NC Alliance condemns members of the Texas Legislature who supported passage of Texas Law SB8 and the US Supreme Court for failing to stop implementation of that law, which effectively strips women of their constitutional right to make private, personal decisions regarding their reproduction and health care choices.

Women have been denied full autonomy for centuries. It has only been in the last 50-plus years that women have been able to serve on juries, get credit, apply and get most jobs, earn a living wage (although not an equitable one compared to their male counterparts) and control when and if they have children.

2021 Annual Meeting

August 29, 2021 by Audrey Muck Leave a Comment

ERA-NC Alliance Annual Meeting

Saturday, October 23 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Online via Zoom

Our keynote speaker for the annual meeting is Allison Titman, Executive Director of the Alice Paul Institute. She has held leadership, curatorial, and exhibit management roles at several historic house museums in the Washington, D.C. region, as well as the Women’s Memorial at Arlington Cemetery. You can learn more about the excellent work the Alice Paul Institute is doing at their website; they also have lots of background information and photos of Alice Paul herself there as well.

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