SCOTUS: follow the ERA in Dobbs

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