ERA Biennial Candidate Survey – Lickin’ and Stickin’ Project
From the September newsletter of the League of Women Voters Asheville/Buncombe County
| Update on the candidate biennial survey, led by League member Robbie Madden on behalf of the ERA-NC Alliance, of which the LWVNC is a lead organization. Last month, Robbie described how each North Carolina candidate running for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and NC General Assembly (nearly 400 candidates in all) were sent a letter asking if he/she supported the Equal Rights Amendment. Stamped return postcards were included with the letters to facilitate responses. |
In their response, many candidates called the ERA “long overdue.” Others remain opposed or have, so far, failed to respond.
The Equal Rights Amendment is nonpartisan and enjoys support from Republican candidates, as well as Democrats.
According to Sammy Davis Webb, a Republican running for state Senate “We need this guarantee in the Constitution.” Fellow Republican Rick Padgett echoed his support. “Equal access and due process. I have worked for some great women. I worked domestic violence cases in law enforcement.”
“I have been working to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and expand women’s rights since I was in college,” said Deborah K. Ross, Democratic candidate for U.S. House District 2. “I would absolutely support extending the deadline.” Fellow Democrat David Wilson Brown, running for U.S. House District 5, characterized the ERA as “grossly overdue.”
Full results of the survey with candidate comments are available on the ERA-NC Alliance webpage: https://www.era-nc.org/on-your-ballot-who-supports-the-era/
New ERA ratification bills will be filed in both houses of the NC General Assembly in the 2021 session. Let’s get ready to push these bills through and make North Carolina the 39th state to ratify the ERA! Many thanks to Robbie Madden and her survey crew!
National Women’s Law Center data show that women are disproportionately fighting the Covid 19 pandemic, constituting 75% of hospital workers, 88% of psychiatric, nursing and home health workers, 66% of cashiers and retail salespeople in grocery stores, and 63% of fast food and counter workers. Not only are these low paying, but these jobs in the food service and home care industries are particularly likely to lack employer or union-based health insurance. As a result, these women on the front lines lack basic health insurance protection as well as ranking low on the totem pole for critically limited supplies of personal protective equipment.
RICHMOND (May 8, 2020)—Late last night, the Trump Administration filed a motion to dismiss Attorney General Mark R. Herring’s landmark civil rights lawsuit that seeks to ensure that the Equal Rights Amendment is recognized as the 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution following Virginia’s ratification in January 2020. For more than three months, the Trump Administration has refused to recognize Virginia’s valid ratification of the ERA, and it is now trying to keep the courts from reviewing its obstruction. “Donald Trump is telling the women of America that, after 231 years, they should just sit down and wait even longer for equal treatment under the Constitution. It’s wrong, it’s offensive, and it’s shameful,” said Attorney General Herring. “If the Trump Administration opposes a Constitutional guarantee of equality for women then they should just say so rather than hiding behind process and trying to throw the issue into Mitch McConnell’s hands. No matter what schemes the Trump Administration may concoct to try to stand in the way of progress, this movement has shown time and again that it will not be deterred and it will not be defeated.” On January 27, 2020, the Virginia General Assembly voted to pass and ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, making it the 38th and final state needed to immediately make it part of the Constitution. On January 30, Attorney General Herring filed suit to ensure that Virginia’s ratification was recognized, and to ensure that the Equal Rights amendment has been added to the U.S. Constitution, enshrining equal rights for women. Joining him in the suit are Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, the attorneys general of ratifying states number 36 and 37. In the complaint, Attorney General Herring and his colleagues argue that “under Article V, a proposed constitutional amendment automatically becomes ‘valid to all intents and purposes, as part of th[e] Constitution’ as soon as it is ‘ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states’. The complaint further argues that the U.S. Archivist does not have any discretionary authority over which amendments are added to the Constitution and which are not, and must therefore certify the amendment as part of the Constitution. The complaint also explains why the Equal Rights Amendment remains valid for several reasons. As the Complaint states, “Article V does not empower Congress to dictate when a state may consider – much less ratify – a proposed amendment” and “nothing in Article V suggests – much less clearly requires – that States take action on proposed constitutional amendments within any particular amount of time”. The complaint also explains that “States have no power to rescind prior ratifications”. Attorney General Herring and his partners in Nevada and Illinois anticipated filing briefs in the coming weeks opposing the Trump Administration’s efforts to kill the ERA. # # # |
By Roberta Madden
Published in the Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times on Sunday, April 26, 2020
“Bound by paperwork, short on hands, sleep, and energy . . . nurses are rarely short on caring.” –Sharon Hudacek
http://ashevillecitizentimes.nc.newsmemory.com/?publink=1348f8a91
— A group of feminist filmmakers and activists released an Open Letter on Tuesday, calling out FX’s new TV series MRS. AMERICA and its marketing for focusing on the Equal Right’s Amendment’s failure to pass in 1982 without shining a light on the recent victories in the movement to ratify the ERA.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BuNPBUOYP5WkDypHtNL4otfzMw0c8VCE0tOzrlFOhUY/edit?ts=5e8fb8bd
| Mar 10, 2020 — New CosponsorsS.J.Res. 6: A joint resolution removing the deadline for the ratification of the equal rights amendment. New Cosponsor: Sen. Patrick Leahy [D-VT] New Cosponsor: Sen. Joe Manchin [D-WV] The resolution now has 48 cosponsors (44 Democrats, 2 Republicans, 2 Independents).Trackers: Bill Search – “Equal Rights Amendment”. |
