No more Excuses! Biden must Publish the ERA NOW, so Kamala & other Women are First Class Equal Citizens!
My 6/24/24 Speech at NC General Assembly
If the fully-ratified Equal Rights Amendment (“ERA”) was published by the Archivist as the 28th Amendment, it would make VP Kamala Harris, and all women, actually equal citizens for the first time in our Constitution.
ONLY BIDEN HAS THE POWER AND THE DUTY TO TELL THE ARCHIVIST TO PUBLISH THE ERA!
🗝️⏰Biden has the affirmative Constitutional duty and POWER to direct the Archivist to publish the ERA NOW under the Art. II, § 3, TAKE CARE duty: The President “shall (must) take Care that the laws be faithfully executed” (carried out), here, it is the law, 1 U.S. Code §106b, that makes it a mandatory, non-discretionary duty of the Archivist to publish all Amendments that have been ratified by ¾ of the States (now 38) in the Constitution.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Urgency of Now
POST-ELECTION UPDATE
Our Last Chance to Get Biden to Publish the ERA to Stop the Dobbs Destruction & SCOTUS from Further Diminishing
The Rights of Women & LGBT People
The ERA must be published to put our country on notice that it is the 28th Amendment. The ERA will be a Bulwark to stop many of the promised fascist and authoritarian laws, current and future.
It seems surreal that the country elected him. But right now we only have about 5 weeks to make this happen. If you want to help us, please read this background information to get up to speed and then email me at AttorneyRockey@gmail.com answering and asking questions, providing me the requested info and letting me know you are ready to join in the National ERA Publication Task Force Thursday zoom meetings (2:30pm ET - 3:30pm).
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:d566619a-f2a0-4e8a-a1dd-ca6860194b8d
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Thankfully, Trump’s SCOTUS Immunity case HAS BACKFIRED in one way!! It held that the President’s Constitutional Article II powers are official acts of the President, and it emphasized the strength of the Article II powers of the President:
“[T]he courts have ‘no power to control [the President’s] discretion’ when he acts pursuant to the powers invested exclusively in him by the Constitution.”
Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. __ (2024) (No. 23–939. July 1, 2024) (Slip Opinion, at 7) https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf.
So if Biden uses his Art. II, § 3 TAKE CARE POWER, it prevents injunctions or court cases!
Congress should not do any Resolutions; it’s not necessary, and they are not necessarily judgment-proof, because Congress’ job was over in 1972. So there is NO Constitutional basis for Resolutions under Art. V. Rescissions of Ratifications are unconstitutional under Originalism (it’s a one way street), and the purported 7 year deadline is unconstitutional under Textualism and the 10th Amendment! Thus, the “deadline” was void from the beginning. Congress could have put it in the TEXT of the ERA (like it’s own §3), BUT IT DID NOT. The ERA WAS FULLY RATIFIED ON 1/27/2020, and per the Text’s own §3, it became legally-effective on 1/27/22.
So get Joe to Publish The ERA NOW!!!
ERA activists can stop worrying about court injunctions and cases & GET LOUD & DEMAND:
Biden publish ERA!
ERA is the ONLY way!
The ERA has been validly ratified and legally became the 28th Amendment on that date, January 27, 2020. But Trump politically BLOCKED the ARCHIVIST ILLEGALLY, with an incorrect Republican legal policy memo about an actually UNCONSTITUTIONAL, thus VOID, time limit (aka “deadline”) [see why the deadline is void at Endnote 1] within which the 38 states purportedly had to ratify the ERA, and stopped the Archivist from following the mandatory law, 1 U.S. Code Section 106b that REQUIRES the Archivist to publish all amendments in the Constitution immediately after 38 (3/4 of the) States ratify it. [See Endnotes 2 for why Congress cannot fix this problem and 3 for why this action is appropriate under the Take Care Duty].
Executive Summary of my 8/13/24 Letter to WH Counsel et al.
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:ee425661-7806-4209-b40c-9c274f1e1bb8
Draft Executive Order for President Biden to use to direct the Archivist to publish the ERA now:
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:fc3a74bd-3e3b-404c-9443-2262b957fe5c
The ERA is the ONLY ratified AMENDMENT that has sat in limbo without being published — now for four and a half years!
PUBLICATION of the ERA IS CRITICAL to give the nation, including all the Courts and Legislatures, OFFICIAL NOTICE that it exists. In fact, if the ERA had been published, the Supreme Court could not have ignored it when they were deciding Dobbs, because the ERA is the TEXTUAL basis for why abortion bans, before viability, are unconstitutional, and it also provides, by implication, a FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT to Reproductive Choice. Exactly the Constitutional textual basis Alito wrote in Dobbs did not exist!
[See Endnote 4 for the Motion we filed on behalf of ERA-NC Alliance in Dobbs, trying to bring the ERA to SCOTUS’ attention via an amicus brief].
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
RECENT NEWS!!
On August 6, 2024, the American Bar Association passed Resolution 601 saying that the ERA is the 28th Amendment!!
The ABA urges the Biden Administration to publish it NOW.
This is the language of it:
ADOPTED [by] AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION COMMISSION ON WOMEN IN THE PROFESSION SECTION ON CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE INTERNATIONAL LAW SECTION CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS NEW YORK CITY BAR ASSOCIATION REPORT TO THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES RESOLUTION
RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association supports the principle that any time limit for ratification of an amendment to the United States Constitution (“Constitution”) is not consistent with Article V of the Constitution;
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association supports the principle that Article V does not permit a state to rescind its ratification of an amendment to the Constitution;
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to support implementation of the Equal Rights Amendment (“ERA”) to the Constitution, in accordance with Article V; and
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges all bar associations and the legal community as a whole to support implementation of the ERA.
HERE is the link to Resolution 601 and the Report, which breaks down all these legal issues and emphasizes, in its last sentence:
“We need the ERA — now . Before it is too late.”
(ABA Report, at 15) [Emphasis in the original]. https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/women/2024/res-601-adopted.pdf
I further quote from their implementation plan:
“Write letters to the Executive Branch—including the President and Vice President, … urging the Administration to publish, without delay, the ERA as the 28th Amendment.” (ABA Report, at 17)
Click here to write to President Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris:
Please ask Pres. Biden to Publish the ERA NOW to SAVE ALL REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS, EQUAL PAY, STOP BIAS AGAINST PROTECTIVE MOTHERS IN FAMILY COURTS, & SAVE LGBT MARRIAGE.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
MORE GOOD NEWS:
The League of Women Voters
just sent this powerful letter to President Biden, with national and all state Presidents, calling on him to direct the Archivist to Publish the ERA now!
https://www.lwv.org/sites/default/files/2024-08/League%20Leadership%20ERA%20Memo_1.pdf
“The protection of equal rights is not a polarizing issue among the American people. Today, 78% of Americans favor adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution according to a survey from Pew Research Center. If you believe in equality for all, the League calls on you to critically affirm the enshrinement of sex equality into the Constitution. The strength and future of our democracy depend on it.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The reason the ERA textually prevents laws against female reproductive choice was specifically embodied in THEN Senator Kamala Harris’ famous question of Brett Kavanaugh: “Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to regulate decisions about the male body?… Male versus female?”
https://youtube.com/shorts/D2y6dKIkF7k?si=o5cboXT68FQ-FkLE
He fumbled all over himself. His final answer: “I’m not thinking of any right now, Senator.”
Just remember, as we might say down South:
If it ain’t good for the gander,
it sure as hell ain’t good for the goose!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
On Oct. 9, 2024, the ACOG called on the Biden “administration to do everything in their power to finalize the Equal Rights Amendment so that the promise of equal rights under the law, including the right to access comprehensive reproductive health care such as abortion, may be realized.“
https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2024/10/statement-on-the-equal-rights-amendment
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
UCSF ANSIRH OB-GYN STUDY Finds that Dobbs has so significantly impacted the provision of evidence-based medical care, and the unacceptable outcomes to patients that need medical treatment that is illegal or in grey areas, that the abortion bans need to be eliminated!
“Care Post-Roe study in September 2022, aiming to "provide a venue for healthcare providers to anonymously share information about cases of poor-quality care due to new restrictions on abortion." “These clinician narratives are a continuation of that study.” 63 cases in 1st year post-Dobbs [06/24/22] and 23 cases in the 2nd year plus 2 months into 3rd year.
“We're continuing to see these cases of poor-quality care more than 2 years after Dobbs," Grossman told MedPage Today. "I really am now coming to believe that these laws are just incompatible with evidence-based medical care, and the bans need to be repealed -and that's the only solution."
THE ONLY WAY TO DO THAT IS FOR THE PRESIDENT TO TELL THE ARCHIVIST TO PUBLISH THE ERA NOW.
Then State legislators can run now on vowing to repeal these dangerous and fascist overlord laws that including obtaining medical records that are invasive to patient privacy and criminalizing multiple actions around abortions and miscarriages.
Harris-Walz and Dems in Congressional races can run on repealing the ~ 150 year old Comstock Act making the mailing of national abortion-inducing medicine's (and currently about 60% of abortions are medicine-induced) and instruments criminal, as well as creating laws regarding specific things that are protected by the ERA, like IVF, Contraception, marriage equality, and Equal Pay, etc.
Read “Dobbs Has Fundamentally Changed Obstetric Care, Study Finds” by Rachel Robertson, MedPage Today, 09-09-24.
łohttps://www.medpagetoday.com/obgyn/abortion/111867
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
My Daily Kos ERA article 9-7-24:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
ONLY THE PRESIDENT HAS THE POWER AND THE DUTY to ORDER the Archivist to publish the ERA NOW using the Constitution’s Article II, § 3, TAKE CARE AFFIRMATIVE DUTY: The President “shall (must) take Care that the laws be faithfully executed” (carried out), here, it is the law, 1 U.S. Code §106b, that makes it a mandatory, non-discretionary duty of the Archivist to publish all Amendments that have been ratified by ¾ of the States (now 38) in the Constitution.
President Biden, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL keeping our next President and over half of our population from FULL EQUALITY!
President Biden, tell the U.S. Archivist to PUBLISH the EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution!!
Making women, 51% of our population, legal equal citizens will fortify our democracy against authoritarianism.
Making Women & Girls EQUAL CITIZENS will be YOUR CROWNING LEGACY, YOUR BFD!
The ERA will be able to be immediately used:
To stop all post-Dobbs anti-Reproductive Rights and many anti-LGBT state and any future federal laws;
To overturn Dobbs, because the ERA is the Constitutional textual basis for Reproductive Choice, and even by implication, the ERA provides a Fundamental Right to Reproductive Choice, CONTRARY TO WHAT ALITO WROTE IN DOBBS, and to overturn the 1873 Comstock Act;
To protect doctors’ ability to practice medicine according to their own professional standards without the fear of being arrested or of losing their medical licenses; women and others who accompany them if they still need to travel for reproductive healthcare from being arrested; the privacy of women’s reproductive healthcare records; and the privacy of all women’s and girls menstrual cycles;
Per Section 2 of the ERA, the enabling clause, a Democratic Congress can — once the ERA IS PUBLISHED in the Constitution— “Codify Roe” and protect the issues listed above and others effected by sex discrimination, such as requiring rape test kits be completed within reasonable timelines and to stomp out gender bias in the Family Courts, that now often give fathers, who allegedly have sexually or physically abused their children, about a 50% chance of winning custody of those children, sometimes totally cutting their Protective Mothers out of their children’s lives for years! (If you want to know how that happens, read my article at the menu, Protecting Your Child); Preventing sex discrimination in employment, housing, federal benefits, and in the military.
____________________
THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT
Sec. 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.
Sec. 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Sec. 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
H.R.J. Res. 208, 92d Cong., 86 Stat. 1523 (1972)
____________________
ENDNOTES
The reason why the deadline is unconstitutional is because our Supreme Court is conservative and uses Textualist constitutional interpretation methods. Per Article V, of the Constitution, Congress would have had the legal authority to actually write that deadline in the TEXT of the ERA, but it didn’t. Congress only put it in the Resolving Clause (aka “Preamble”); and by doing that, it was unconstitutional for two reasons: 1) because Article V did not explicitly give Congress the power to control the States’ ratification process by adding a deadline outside of the proposed text of the ERA; and 2) because the States only were able to choose whether or not to ratify the language that was in the proposed text of the amendment per Article V, and all rights and powers that are not explicitly given to Congress in the Constitution, the 10th Amendment (”States’ Rights” Amendment) reserves those rights and powers for the States. The process to amend the Constitution was set up by our Founders (which is where the Conservative method of interpretation of Originalism comes in) to be equally shared between Congress and the States. So the deadline language in the Preamble was unconstitutional also under the 10th Amendment.
It is important to mention that, under Article V, the President has no role. Further, after the Amendment is sent out to the States for ratification, there is no further role for Congress. You may know the President has been telling Congress they needed to make a Resolution to affirm that the ERA is valid. But 1) that is not Congress’ job, although Congress did that regarding the 27th Amendment, which took over 200 years to ratify, but not until AFTER the 27th was published; 2) Congress has pending Resolutions telling the Archivist to publish the valid ERA, but Republicans have a majority in the House and need 60 votes to break the filibuster rule in the Senate; and 3) the Republicans highly intimidated the Archivist during her confirmation hearings, to try to make sure she never published the ERA.
HOWEVER, the President has a MANDATORY “TAKE CARE” DUTY under Art II, §3 to enforce the ministerial, non-discretionary duty to publish ratified amendments, per 1 U.S. Code §106b. The Constitution provides that the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed . . . .” This duty potentially implicates at least five categories of executive power, including: …(3) powers that congressional acts confer upon heads of departments and other executive agencies of the federal government; …and (5) power to carry out the so-called ‘ministerial duties,’ regarding which an executive officer can exercise limited discretion as to the occasion or manner of their discharge.” https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-2/section-3/overview-of-the-take-care-clause
The Hail Mary Motion we filed on behalf of ERA-NC Alliance in Dobbs, trying to bring the ERA to SCOTUS’ attention via an amicus brief, since the Clinic’s attorneys failed to do so, despite my repeated requests. It was not filed officially because only a party has the right to bring new legal authority to the Courts attention after oral arguments.
~ SEE MORE IMPORTANT LINKS BELOW ~
____________________
ADDITIONAL LINKS / BACK UP / RECEIPTS:
Daily Kos Opinion Article that explains the current situation with the ERA, with important links within it
📖Kos4RECEIPTS:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/22/2247983/-PUBLISH-THE-ERA-JOE-WOMEN-S-LIVES-AND-LIVELIHOODS-ARE-AT-STAKE-AS-IS-DEMOCRACY
Archivist’s list of state ratifications. https://www.archives.gov/files/foia/pdf/era-list-of-state-ratification-actions-03-24-2020.pdf
Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. ____ (2024) (No. 23–939. July 1, 2024)(Slip Opinion) [See pg 7 for quote above). https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
The Trump Administration’s OLC Opinion, wrongfully blocking publication of the ERA. Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, 44 Op. O.L.C. __ (Jan. 6, 2020). https://www.justice.gov/olc/file/1235176/dl?inline
Michele Thorne’s Chicago Bar Association Record article using Justice Scalia’s conservative Textualist and Originalist methods of Constitutional interpretation to prove the purported ERA Deadline (in the Resolution’s Preamble, not in the text of the proposed ERA) is unconstitutional and Ratifications, once done, cannot be rescinded. https://user-35215390377.cld.bz/CBA-Record-May-June-2022/31/
Also see her more easily understandable Continuing Legal Education (“CLE”) video (35 minutes) at https://youtu.be/9rtRwfX-62w
The Motion we filed , on behalf of ERA-NC Alliance, in Dobbs trying to bring the newly legally-effective ERA via an Amicus Brief, as of January 27, 2022, per its §3, to the Court’s attention after the Alito leak. It was not accepted for filing, because only a party could bring new legal authority to the Court’s attention. It shows why the ERA TEXTUALLY protects Reproductive Choice and, by implication, creates a Fundamental Right to Reproductive Choice:
https://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
Draft Executive Order for President Biden to use to direct the Archivist to publish the ERA now!
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:fc3a74bd-3e3b-404c-9443-2262b957fe5c
Arlaine Rockey, Esq.’s
ERA Legal Blog
https://arlainerockey.com/equal-rights-for-women
FREE: RESOLUTION CALLING ON BIDEN TO PUBLISH THE ERA, INCLUDING THE LEGAL REASONS WHY THE ERA WAS VALIDLY RATIFIED ON JANUARY 27,2020
Here is a researched and correct RESOLUTION I drafted that any group or entity is free to use, and even add WHEREAS clauses with regard to its specific reasons or concerns. Feel free to use and share. See link and full text below.
Prepared by ERA Attorney,
Arlaine Rockey, Esq.
ArlaineRockey@gmail.com
ERA Legal Blog
https://arlainerockey.com/equal-rights-for-women
LINK TO THIS GIFT RESOLUTION:
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:b59b0cd1-8e32-4c7e-bfd5-96c2301d6607
____________________
RESOLUTION FOR PRESIDENT BIDEN TO IMMEDIATELY DIRECT THE U.S. ARCHIVIST TO PUBLISH THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT AS THE 28th AMENDMENT TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION
By _____________________________
Dated ______________
WHEREAS, Vice President Kamala Harris, as the probable nominee of the Democratic Party for the Presidency of these United States, along with all female citizens must have their legal equality of rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution now;
WHEREAS, making women, 51% of our population, legal equal citizens will fortify our democracy against authoritarianism;
WHEREAS, the President has an affirmative official Constitutional duty to “Take Care” that all laws are faithfully enforced, per Article II, Section 3, of the U.S. Constitution;
WHEREAS, 1 U.S. Code, Section 106b makes it the mandatory, non-discretionary job of the Archivist to publish immediately all amendments that have been ratified by 3/4 of the States;
WHEREAS, the Archivist has already published its list of ERA state ratifications showing that ¾ of our 50 States, 38 States, ratified the ERA on or before January 27, 2020;
WHEREAS, Article V of the Constitution only textually provides Congress the powers: 1) to send to the States the text of its proposed amendments for their ratification consideration; and 2) to choose one of two methods for states to ratify said proposed amendments, either via a constitutional convention or via each State’s legislative body;
WHEREAS, Article V provides that the states may vote whether or not to ratify the text of the proposed amendment;
WHEREAS, the ERA, H.R.J. Res. 208, 92d Cong., 86 Stat. 1523 (1972), was passed by ¾ of both houses of Congress, and sent to the states;
WHEREAS, the complete proposed text of the ERA was then and is now:
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.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification;
WHEREAS, based on originalist methods of Constitutional interpretation, ratification once done, cannot be later rescinded.
WHEREAS, the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. ____ (2024) (No. 23–939. July 1, 2024) (Slip Opinion), includes Article II powers as official acts of the President, and it emphasized the strength of the Article II powers of the President: “[T]he courts have ‘no power to control [the President’s] discretion’ when he acts pursuant to the powers invested exclusively in him by the Constitution.” Id. at 7;
WHEREAS, the Trump Administration’s OLC Opinion, Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, 44 Op. O.L.C. __ (January 6, 2020), incorrectly opined that the purported time limit (aka “deadline”) within which states had to ratify the ERA, prevented the Archivist from publishing the ERA in the Constitution. However, the time limit was set out only in the Preamble of the ERA Resolution, and was not included in the text of the proposed Amendment (wherein which Congress would have had the authority to include such a time limitation). Thus, the time limit is unconstitutional and void ab initio;
WHEREAS, said January 6, 2020 OLC Opinion, that effectively blocked the Archivist from following his mandatory, non-discretionary duty under 1 US Code Section 106b, does not have the force of a court order; rather, it is merely a policy opinion. Thus, said OLC Opinion was improvidently decided. It in no way hinders the President’s “Take Care” duty of Art. II, Section 3, Id.;
WHEREAS, even without being published in the US Constitution, the ERA legally became an Amendment to the US Constitution the moment it was ratified, per Art. V, on January 27, 2020, by Virginia, the last required state ratification;
WHEREAS, per its own, Section 3, the ERA became legally effective on January 27, 2022;
WHEREAS, publication of each ratified amendment is necessary to ensure that all state and federal courts and legislatures have official notice that it is an Amendment to the Constitution:
WHEREAS, directing the U.S. Archivist to follow 1 US Code Section 106b and to immediately publish the ERA in the U.S. Constitution and to note therein that the official date of ratification was January 27, 2020, is a proper use of the President’s official “Take Care” Art. II, Section 3 powers and duties;
WHEREAS, without the ERA published in the U.S. Constitution, no female citizen has full equal rights under the U.S. Constitution, as the only undiminished right female citizens now have is the right to vote, per the 19th Amendment.
NOW THEREFORE, the President of the United States must immediately direct the United States Archivist to publish the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to our United States Constitution and note therein that the official date of ratification was January 27, 2020.