ICYMI: Gillibrand Op-Ed In The New York Times: Make The Equal Rights Amendment Part Of The Constitution

Dec 16, 2024

In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand published an opinion piece in the New York Times urging President Biden to direct the national archivist to certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would enshrine equality and reproductive rights in the Constitution, before he leaves office. Senator Gillibrand has led the fight for the certification of the ERA, which was approved by both houses of Congress in the 1970s and ratified by the last of the necessary three-quarters of the states in 2020 but never published.

Read the full op-ed here or below:

Make the Equal Rights Amendment part of the Constitution

Kirsten Gillibrand | December 15, 2024

With Republicans set to take unified control of government, Americans are facing the further degradation of reproductive freedom.

Fortunately, Mr. Biden has the power to enshrine reproductive rights in the Constitution right now. He can direct the national archivist to certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment. This would mean that the amendment has been officially ratified and that the archivist has declared it part of the Constitution.

The amendment is concise: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."

The amendment would make discrimination on the basis of sex - like restrictions on reproductive care that single out women - unconstitutional, including, in my view, abortion. We've seen the potential of this approach; courts in several states with E.R.A.s have cited those amendments in striking down state prohibitions on Medicaid-funded abortion care.

The E.R.A. has met the requirements for certification - it passed two-thirds of Congress in 1972 and was ratified by three-quarters of the states as of 2020. Only a flawed Trump Justice Department memo prevented its certification as a constitutional amendment. The memo contended that the E.R.A. is no longer valid because it failed to meet the seven-year deadline that Congress initially set and then, when the ratification effort fell three states short, extended until 1982.

But the deadline was meaningless. The Constitution says nothing about a deadline for amending it.

No doubt this would be argued in the courts; right-wing legal challenges would follow the archivist's certification and publication. But there is strong legal backing for our position. Mr. Biden should act now to protect reproductive rights and make the E.R.A. the law of the land.

Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, is a United States senator representing New York.

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