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Work continues as U.S. Constitution comes into sight

March 2020 might be the happiest month for women’s equality in, literally, a century. We’ve finally done it, y’all. We’ve ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. Stop. Take a breath. And think about that sentence again.

We. Have. Ratified. The. Equal. Rights. Amendment.

It’s stunning. But it is true. It has happened. Here’s the simple text that will change our lives:

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any State
on account of sex.

Just in time for March’s Women’s History Month and for International Women’s Day on March 8, a global day celebrating women’s achievements. Let’s put on our dancing shoes and toast ourselves. Virginia is having a celebration in Richmond and we’re all invited. And if you can’t make it, I urge you to take the time to high-five your sisters in North Carolina and nationwide.

For those who don’t follow the ERA’s every twist and turn, it may seem as though the recent successes were a moment of spontaneous combustion. They are not. The ERA has not made the front page in decades — or the back page, for that matter — but has NEVER been dormant. Advocates have worked tirelessly for the last 100 years to bring equality to every one in America. Women from the 1920s, such as Alice Paul, handed off the baton to the generation who pushed Congress to pass the ERA in 1972, such as Eleanor Smeal and our own immediate past president Robbie Madden. Those women have never, ever stopped. North Carolina Rep. Carla Cunningham, Sen. Floyd B. McKissick, Jr., and Sen. Terry van Duyn have been on the front lines in our own General Assembly. And a new generation of men and women, such as Nevada’s Pat Spearman, Illinois Republican Steve Andersson and Virginia’s Katie Hornung have pushed ratification over the finish line. It’s been a single continuous river of mostly sisters, dating to Abigail Adams, nearly 300 years of ceaseless effort by thousands and thousands, to give all women the same rights as our brothers. Not more. And not less.

Let me catch you up, in case your attention has been elsewhere. Fair warning: Your head may start to spin.

VIRGINIA BECOMES THE 38TH AND FINAL TO RATIFY
The Commonwealth of Virginia in November elected a swell of pro-ERA legislators. In January, the Virginia House and Senate made ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment the first order of business. Virginia’s ratification joined Nevada’s (2017) and Illinois’ (2018) as the final three needed to ratify. Remember, we had 35 states ratify by 1982, but we needed exactly 38. After a couple of decades’ delay, we’ve arrived!

U.S. HOUSE LIFTS TIME LIMIT
On a separate path, last week the U.S. House voted to lift the arbitrary time limit set by Congress.
In February, our own Attorney General Josh Stein joined a number of other state attorneys general in a letter calling for a floor vote to lift the time limit. Our advocates in Congress, such as Rep. Carolyn Maloney, spent years and years fighting to lift the deadline, filing bill after bill, only to see them lie dormant and dusty in committee. It was a moving, historic moment, with beautiful speeches from our advocates, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with most of our supportive women lawmakers dressed in historic purple.

So now what?

NORTH CAROLINA CONTINUES BATTLE FOR 39TH
Several actions are traveling along separate paths, all headed to the same final destination. The ERA-NC Alliance members are continuing to fight for North Carolina to ratify. Our lawmakers, working closely with us, plan to file new ratification bills in April or May at the beginning of the General Assembly’s short session. We want a big turnout so we’ll keep everyone posted when a day is set. We believe our beloved state should be 39th to ratify, not 49th, as we were with women’s right to vote.

U.S. SENATE MUST LIFT TIME LIMIT
Our second major action is for advocates in the U.S. Senate to successfully lift the arbitrary time limit. That means we need the Senate to pass Senate Joint Resolution 6. We need every advocate to contact our senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, as well as Sen. Mitch McConnell, and ask them to bring the resolution to the Senate floor and vote yes. See our call to action for how-tos.

ACTIONS AGAINST THE NATIONAL ARCHIVIST
And, finally, there’s nothing like changing the Constitution to bring the lawyers out of the woodwork.

Under the normal process for any Constitutional amendment, once the necessary number of states ratify, the National Archivist, currently David Ferriero, certifies the ratification, puts it in the U.S. Constitution, end of story. But for the ERA, opponents have decided to use that arbitrary time limit as a sticking point.

In December, attorneys general from Alabama, Louisiana and South Dakota have filed a lawsuit against the National Archives, saying, he must not certify the ERA due to the time limit and state rescission. (“Rescissions” refers to the states that say they want to “unratify” their ratifications.) The Justice Department last fall sent an opinion to Ferriero that the ERA could not be adopted because the time limit expired.

In January, Equal Means Equal and others filed their own lawsuit against the archivist, saying the rescissions are not valid, and calling on Ferriero to record all state ratifications, dismissing a non-enforceable time limit. Later in January, the attorneys general of Illinois, Nevada and Virginia sued the archivist to execute his statutory duties and certify the ERA as part of the U.S. Constitution.

And, last week, the attorneys general of Alabama, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Tennessee waded in with a motion to intervene in the lawsuit filed by the Illinois, Nevada and Virginia Attorneys General, asking to be added as intervening defendants in the case against the Archivist.

Our national counterpart, ERA Coalition, along with multiple attorneys general and advocates nationwide continue to advocate amidst the various lawsuits to see that the certification of the ERA prevails.

Is it over now? Not yet. The wheels of democracy can turn slowly. Very slowly. But they do turn. And we will keep turning them until every person in America, no matter the sex, has equal rights under the law.

Teri Walley
Vice President, Communications
ERA-NC Alliance