By: Nancy Werner
Advocacy Team ERA Lead (2022-2026) 

Equal Rights Amendment – It Happened!

Advocacy –Equal Rights Amendment. “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex” needs to be placed into our Constitution. While most states have laws prohibiting discrimination of any kind based on sex, proponents of the E.R.A. say laws can be reversed or eliminated. Having a Constitutional Amendment would cement those rights.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! What a month to remember. Thank you to each and every one of you for your tireless efforts to call, text, and email the White House. But let us look at the events as they are unfolding.

January 17, 2025

President Biden has affirmed that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is duly ratified and stands as the law of the land! Read the White House statement here.

This marks an historic moment for women’s rights advocates who have tirelessly fought for over a century to secure equality in the United States Constitution.

While questions remain about whether the National Archivist has been instructed to publish the ERA and legal challenges are anticipated, this announcement is a powerful step forward. It provides renewed hope and energy for the ongoing fight to ensure equal rights are fully recognized and protected.

We extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who has worked, advocated, and taken action to make this historic milestone possible. Together, we are moving closer   to   achieving true constitutional equality. Keep marchingforward—our collective efforts are making a difference!

Speaking of marching - don't forget tomorrow the People's March will take place in cities across the US. Join thousands of activists in celebrating this win!

Best Regards,

Emily VanVleck

National Vice President of Advocacy

vpadvocacy@nfbpwc.org

Thank you, Emily. But then the discussion swirled around the United State Archivist signing the document into the Constitution. Did she, or didn’t she? From all accounts she didn’t … so now what?

But then we have Wendy Murphy, Esq., Equal Means Equal, sharing her take on this last-minute proclamation by President Biden.

Trump’s executive order declaring sex binary and immutable is just as meaningless as Biden’s statement declaring the ERA valid. They both know what they did was illegal, so why do it?

Because they both want the same result: get an ERA case to the Supreme Court ASAP so the court can declare the ERA irrelevant now that sex is mutable.

As Gillebrand was oddly begging lawyers to file cases under the ERA it was obvious she was trying to create a case where the Supreme Court could take up an ERA case, apply Skrmetti’s mutability rule, and kill it. But it’s better to have a split in the circuits, which is typically needed for Supreme Court review. So then - like magic - Trump issues an unlawful executive order declaring sex immutable and the lawsuits are alreadybeing prepared to litigate the “other side” of the mutability issue. Convenient.

This is more proof that both sides are working together against the ERA because it takes this kind of high- level strategy to falsely create exactly the right kind of lawsuits to quickly create a Supreme Court controversy. This tactic facilitates the final death of the ERA in a way that won’t even require the court to address the Article V deadline issue.

The court can simply rule that Trump and Biden both exceeded their authority, but it doesn’t matter because women get only intermediate scrutiny under Skrmetti because gender is mutable and gender is part of sex. So

 is mutable, and mutable gets only intermediate scrutiny.

Women need to be much more sophisticated in their activism because this is stuff that cannot be impacted by protests.

Wendy J. Murphy, JD 617-422-7410

Now this week we have Russ Feingold sharing “The ERA Is Part of the Constitution.” He was a three-term Democratic Senator from Wisconsin who was a Rhodes Scholar and a Harvard Law School graduate. He was remembered for placing constitutional principles ahead of partisan politics. He left the Senate in 2011 and began teaching at some of our important law schools.

Presently, he is president of the American Constitution Society. But what does he have to say….

Feingoldsaysthat Biden’sstatement provides recognition of “the validity of the EqualRights Amendment.”

HarvardLaw Professor Laurence Tribe and Feingold have been arguing for the past 3 years that the constitutional requirements for ratification had been met. Feingold shared

that the Congress passed the ERA by two-thirds votes in both chambers and sent the proposed amendment to the states for ratification, has fulfilled its constitutional role. The Archivist can publish without further action from the executive branch or Congress.

So, our drama will continue with the Equal Rights Amendment, our 28^th Amendment to the Constitution. What will happen next is the question. As jubilant as we felt on January 17^th, what will take place NEXT? Stay tuned as many groups are all having zoom meetings to follow this story.

I reflect upon Alice Paul thinking that it would take only

10 years for her amendment to become an amendment way back in 1923. Keep following the ERA. It is far from over.

Nancy Werner

Advocacy Team ERA Lead (2022-2026)