Equal Rights Amendment North Carolina Alliance

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Audrey Muck

Press Release: New NC Ratification Bill

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For immediate release

ERA, that crazy notion of women’s equality,
is officially 100 years old 

Raleigh — Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman wrote the Equal Rights Amendment a century ago: “Equal rights, under the law, shall not be denied or abridged, by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

The requisite 38 states have ratified the ERA but you will not find North Carolina on that list.

Yet.

At 10 a.m. on March 8, International Women’s Day, Rep. Julie von Haefen and Sen. Natalie Murdock will hold a press conference announcing two new bills that will put North Carolina firmly on record as supporters of equal rights under the law for all its citizens. The press conference will be held at the N.C. General Assembly, 16 W. Jones St., Raleigh.

Tens of millions of Americans have assumed that the land of “liberty and justice for all” naturally included women. It does not.

[Read more…] about Press Release: New NC Ratification Bill

ERA-NC Alliance Testimony on S.R. 4

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TESTIMONY ON S.R. 4 BEFORE U.S. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
FROM THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT NORTH CAROLINA ALLIANCE
FEBRUARY 2023

My name is Roberta Madden; I am a co-founder and board member of the Equal Rights Amendment North Carolina Alliance. For more than six decades, I have worked to make the Equal Rights Amendment part of the United States Constitution. Previously living in Iowa, Tennessee, Louisiana and other states, I personally experienced sex discrimination. I was unable to obtain a credit card in my own name. I was excluded from jury service. I was paid three-fourths of the wages earned by men for the same job. Without the Equal Rights Amendment, women had no legal recourse.

Roberta Madden, Board Member
Roberta Madden is co-founder and current Board Member of the ERA-NC Alliance

The ERA North Carolina Alliance is proud to support Senate Resolution 4—a simple proposal.

[Read more…] about ERA-NC Alliance Testimony on S.R. 4

2022 Candidate Surveys

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ERA Certification graphicEvery two years, the ERA-NC Alliance reaches out to EVERY North Carolina candidate running for Congress and the General Assembly to determine their support for the Equal Rights Amendment. We send out letters with postage-paid return postcards to each candidate, and follow up with phone calls as much as possible.

A ‘yes’ means the candidate will co-sponsor and vote for the resolution to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Many candidates also returned comments with their survey.

[Read more…] about 2022 Candidate Surveys

2022 Annual Meeting

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2022 Annual Meeting

Saturday, November 19th
11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
(Doors open at 11 a.m.)
Hybrid – both in-person and via Zoom
Bennett College Global Learning Center
521 Gorrell St., Greensboro, NC 27406
Click for map

Our Annual Meeting team is busy planning a great day of excellent speakers, Alliance board and officer elections, a year in review and planning for the year ahead. So save the date, bookmark this page, and check back often as we fill in all the details!

[Read more…] about 2022 Annual Meeting

Article features Alliance partners

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The UNC Daily Tarheel interviewed ERA-NC Alliance co-president, Lori Bunton, as well as two of our partner organization leaders, Antionette Kerr, Women AdvaNCe’s co-director, and Judy Lotas, former Alliance board member and currently State Co-Chairperson for the ERA in the League of Women Voters.

“We really have a goal right now of seeing that North Carolina becomes a state where women have the same rights and same equality as men,” Bunton said.

Read the full article, “Fifty years after Congress passed Equal Rights Amendment, still not part of Constitution,” by Maggie McIntyre, on their website.

Alliance Elections Process

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Even Year Elections Process

  1. ELIGIBILITY: Any Individual Member or designated representative of Lead Organizations who is in good standing according to the Bylaws, (Article IV, Section 5. – GOOD STANDING) may be eligible to be nominated for election as an Officer or Director of the Board. This means the member must meet all membership eligibility requirements and be duly registered by the Alliance (resident of NC, current dues-paying member, 18 years of age or older).
  2. COMPOSITION AND ELECTION OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS:
    1. At the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Full Membership Body, the body will elect eight (8) Officers and three (3) Directors to the Board of Directors to replace those members who terms expire at the end of 2022 and any unfilled terms of other Board vacancies. The three (3) newly elected members shall be elected to serve for the 2023-2024 term (2 years) by a quorum of the Full Membership Body with a vote of:
      1. Individual Members who are afforded one vote each.
      2. Designated Representatives of Lead Organizations afforded one vote each.
    2. A quorum of the Full Membership Body is ten (10) percent of the total of Individual Members and Lead Organizations designated representatives in good standing as of the date of the annual meeting.
  3. TERMS OF SERVICE: The terms of the Board of Directors and Officers shall be two (2) years. No Director or Officer shall serve more than two (2) full consecutive terms. A Director or Officer who has left the Board because of a term limit may be reelected or reappointed to the Board after a period of one (1) year. Directors and Officers may serve a third consecutive two-year term upon a special vote of the Full Membership Body at an annual meeting.
  4. ELECTIONS: The annual meeting will be on November 19, 2022. Elections will be held at the annual meeting. Those elected will take office January 1, 2023.
    1. Eligible members interested in running for Directors and Officers will self-declare as candidates, sending a concise biography with a photo to the Nominating Committee Chair in a message that also designates the position for which they are running by September 1, 2022.
    2. The Nominations Committee will coordinate efforts to ensure that the eligible, self-declared candidates for Directors and Officers are posted on the ERA-NC Alliance website. The Nominations Committee will interview candidates for Board positions and nominate a slate. Other nominations for Directors and Officers can be made from the floor at the annual meeting.
  5. ELECTIONS & ANNUAL MEETING DEADLINES:

Aug 1- Election Process posted on website and candidacy recruitment letter goes out.

Sept 18 – All candidate names, bios and photos are to be submitted to the Nominating Committee Chair

Oct 1 – All Candidates received to date will be vetted for eligibility

Oct 18 – All candidates’ names will be posted to website (30 days before meeting)

Nov 1 – All eligible voters will have submitted appropriate membership forms to VP Membership to be received and duly registered in advance of the Annual Meeting.

Nov 19 – Annual Meeting (nominations can be taken from the floor)

  1. JOB DESCRIPTIONS:

DIRECTORS:   

The Directors shall have all powers and authority to manage the business, property, and affairs of the Alliance; and to perform such lawful actions and duties as it deems proper and appropriate to promote the purposes and objectives of the Alliance. The Board of Directors may delegate, as necessary from time to time, responsibility for such affairs, business, and property to the Executive Council. Directors appoint chairs of standing or ad hoc committees by a majority vote unless otherwise specified by the bylaws. Directors are expected to attend meetings and actively serve on committees to include acting as committee chairs when appointed/elected.

OFFICERS:

Co-Presidents shall be the chief officers of the Alliance and shall jointly have general charge and supervision over and responsibility for the affairs of the Alliance. Each Co-President will act in the absence of the other or with written notification by the other that she/he is unable to carry out her/his duties. The Co-Presidents shall perform all the duties required and may interchangeably preside over all meetings, sign all official documents, and execute all other duties that usually devolve upon a president.

Vice-President, Fundraising shall preside at all meetings in the absence of the Co-Presidents or at their request. The Vice President, Fundraising shall serve as Chair of the Fundraising Committee. The Vice-President, Fundraising shall succeed to the office of Co-President in the event of a vacancy in that office during the two-year term of office.

Vice-President, Public Relations shall preside at all meetings in the absence of the Co-Presidents and Vice-President, Fundraising. The Vice-President, Public Relations shall serve as Chair of the Public Relations Committee. The Vice-President, Public Relations shall succeed to the office of Co-President in the event of vacancies in the offices of Co-Presidents and First Vice-President.

Vice-President, Membership shall preside at all meetings in the absence of the Co-Presidents and Vice-President, Fundraising and Vice President, Public Relations. The Vice-President, Membership shall serve as Chair of the Membership Committee. The Vice-President, Membership shall succeed to the office of Co-President in the event of vacancies in the offices of Co-Presidents and of the Vice-President, Fundraising and Vice-President, Public Relations.

Vice-President, Legislation shall preside at all meetings in the absence of the Co-Presidents and other Vice-Presidents. The Vice-President, Legislation shall serve as Chair of the Legislative Committee. The Vice-President, Legislation shall succeed to the office of Co-President in the event of vacancies in the offices of Co-Presidents and the other Vice-Presidents.

Secretary shall keep all minutes of the meetings of the Alliance. The Secretary shall perform such other duties and possess such powers as are incidental to the office or as shall be assigned by the Co-Presidents or the Board of Directors.

Treasurer shall accurately keep all financial records, maintain all banking accounts, make deposits, issue properly authorized payments, and make regular written and oral reports on money received and expended to the Board of Directors or Executive Council as directed. The Treasurer shall make all records available for audit and shall turn over all records to the succeeding Treasurer within thirty (30) business days of the end of the term of office.

SCOTUS decimates women’s rights

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Supreme Court decimates women’s rights in Roe decision
Equal Rights Amendment will save women’s lives

The ERA-NC Alliance and its partners are outraged that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing states to determine that most fundamental human right of bodily autonomy. Roe has always been the floor, not the ceiling, for a woman’s right to control her body, decide the size of her family and determine her future.

Removing this final federal protection of minimal abortion access will be devastating for millions of Americans, not just women. Every abortion restriction chips away or outright eradicates that basic human right — whether or not to bear a child. And we know with this decision that 26 states are set to restrict or ban abortion through trigger laws and other legislation. (See Guttmacher Institute.)

Therefore, publication and enforcement of the Equal Rights Amendment is literally a matter of life and death for women in America. Without the legal equality guaranteed by the 28th Amendment, hostile legislators will continue to not only overturn reproductive rights, but gut other laws that have brought women the current degree of equality we have. That is why in May the Alliance filed a brief in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, demanding that the Supreme Court use the ERA as the basis for its Roe decision. The court did not respond.

Justice Samuel Alito had the audacity to write that “no one, as far as we are aware, argues that the laws they enacted against abortion in the early 19th century …violated a fundamental right.” Women had no fundamental rights in the early 19th century, not even a vote.

Women have been denied autonomy over their bodies, indeed their own lives, for centuries. It has only been in the last 50-plus years that women have been able to serve on juries, get credit, apply for and get most jobs, earn a living wage and control when and if they have children. And that has been due, in part, to Roe v. Wade.

As the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “The argument … whether or not to bear a child … is something central to a woman’s life, to her dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. And when the government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a full adult human responsible for her own choices.”

Our founding mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment knew 100 years ago that women must have full constitutional equality because of unequal and unjust laws that impact mothers and potential mothers.

Abortion is the battle. Equality of rights is the war.

Signed,

ERA-NC Alliance
League of Women Voters of North Carolina
American Association of University Women NC
North Carolina National Organization for Women (NOW)
Business & Professional Women NC
WomenNC
Ratify ERA-NC
Charlotte Women’s Movement
YWCA of Asheville
Women’s Forum of North Carolina
NC Women United
Women AdvaNCe

ERA-NC at Women’s Marches

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The ERA-NC Alliance was at many of North Carolina’s Women’s Marches on May 14th. We were there to draw attention to the fact that women’s lack of Constitutional protection has led to what may be the overturning of Roe v. Wade. If forced pregnancy isn’t sex discrimination, what is?

Asheville, NC

Asheville Citizen-Times coverage

Alliance Co-President, Jimmie Cochran Pratt made a brief statement to a crowd of more than 200, emphasizing the need for the Equal Rights Amendment to protect women from having their rights stripped away.

Charlotte, NC

The Rally had approximately 2000 people attend. Speakers included Lori Bunton, Co-President of the ERA-NC Alliance who spoke about how the ERA could help protect all reproductive rights and asked the rally goers to sign a petition to President Biden asking him to instruct the National Archivist to publish the ERA and announce that the ERA is the 28th Amendment. In addition, NCGA Legislator Rachel Hunt spoke about the need to not allow the Republicans to have a Super Majority this fall as they could override vetoes from Gov Cooper.

Salisbury

Salisbury Post news coverage

Board member, Pat Sledge attended the Rowan County march and reports that a number of young women took the mic and addressed the crowd. The white male social studies teacher mentioned in the article pointed out that the people trying to take away women‘s rights are, for the most part, white men.

Winston-Salem

Alliance Treasurer, Audrey Muck, spoke to the crowd of roughly 400 people in Winston-Salem. In her speech, she called the leaked draft Supreme Court ruling a disaster – especially for women of color, low-income and rural women. “This is judicial activism at its worst,” she said. “They are determined to put their thumbs on the scales to prefer potential life over the lives of living breathing women.”

SCOTUS: follow the ERA in Dobbs

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To save reproductive rights, ERA-NC Alliance demands SCOTUS follow the 
Equal Rights Amendment/28th Amendment in Dobbs decision
Court motions filed in Supreme Court today
Raleigh — In a Supreme Court filing on Monday, the ERA-NC Alliance argued that the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is wrongly decided because it fails to consider the 28th Amendment/Equal Rights Amendment, which was added to the U.S. Constitution in January 2020 and became effective Jan. 27, 2022.
“We are stunned that the Court did not consider the most important language in the Constitution, the actual text of the ERA,” Lori Bunton, co-president of the Alliance, said. “We knew that we had to do something to alert the Supreme Court and try to stop this travesty before the Dobbs opinion is issued.”
“Women are going to lose their lives if the Supreme Court refuses to protect our rights to make our own reproductive decisions,” said Jimmie Cochran Pratt, also co-president. “We have learned that not only abortion will be banned, but it’s also likely birth control and the abortion pill. Even people who have ectopic pregnancies could die without the right to have those fetuses safely removed.”
The ERA-NC Alliance asked the court to allow it to file an amicus brief regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and for a time extension in light of the recently leaked Supreme Court draft majority opinion in Dobbs, which uses Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban to decimate women’s reproductive rights and to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
The Alliance argues that Justice Samuel Alito, who positions himself as one of at least five textualists on the Supreme Court, relied on archaic legal theories that predated the U.S. Constitution, in order to justify his draft opinion.
The ERA was fully ratified on Jan. 27, 2020, but former President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr blocked the National Archivist from completing his mandatory duty, which requires the Archivist to certify the 38 states’ ratifications.
ERA-NC Alliance’s motions set out that since Section 3 of the 28th Amendment had a two-year delay for it to become effective, it just became effective on Jan. 27, 2022, after the deadlines for filing briefs in the case and after the December oral arguments.
“If these five Justices claim they are textualists, then they need to follow the text of all the Constitution, including the 28th Amendment, which by its plain language, ‘Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,’ ensures that abortion and other reproductive rights are protected, because Mississippi doesn’t have a law interfering with men’s reproductive rights. There is no Mississippi law making men or boys get vasectomies,” said Arlaine Rockey, an attorney for the Alliance.
“The ERA requires that the courts apply strict scrutiny to prevent the discrimination of women in the Dobbs case,” said Alliance co-counsel Gina Collias. “The intent and requirement of the ERA is to make sure that women are equal citizens, so the ERA implies that women have a fundamental right to reproductive choice.”
“President Biden has a Constitutional duty to make sure that laws are faithfully carried out, according to Article II, Section 3, of the U.S. Constitution,” said Rockey. “The Constitution is the highest law in our country, so the President has a duty to direct the Archivist to certify and publish the ERA immediately. He promised women in his campaign that he would enshrine women’s equality in the Constitution, yet he has failed to follow through. With just one signature, he could make women equal citizens for the first time in hundreds of years.”
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ERA-NC Alliance is a statewide North Carolina 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by North Carolina and working in collaboration with the national organizations and individuals in reaching this goal. The Alliance is comprised of respected women’s organizations including National Organization for Women NC, American Association of University Women NC and the North Carolina League of Women Voters.
See most recent articles regarding purported ERA deadline and rescinding states, and why the ERA provides a fundamental right to reproductive choice at https://ArlaineRockey.com/equal-rights-for-women