Gillibrand makes a last-minute White House push for women's rights constitutional amendment
Source: CNN Politics
Published 4:20 PM EST, Mon December 16, 2024
Washington CNN — Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is making an all-out push in the waning days of the Biden administration that she believes could bolster reproductive rights, calling on the president to certify the Equal Rights Amendment and enshrine its protections into the Constitution.
The move, the New York Democrat wrote in a memo to interested parties, gives Joe Biden a way to “codify women’s freedom and equality without needing anything from a bitterly divided and broken Congress” in the aftermath of the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Biden has taken some executive actions to protect abortion rights following the decision, but the White House has essentially exhausted its options short of Congress codifying Roe’s protections, which remains unlikely.
Gillibrand contends Biden could simply direct the archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen Shogan, to certify and publish the ERA, a bill approved by Congress in 1972 that enshrines equal rights for women. An amendment to the Constitution requires three-quarters of states, or 38, to ratify it. Virginia in 2020 became the 38th state to ratify the bill after it sat stagnant for decades.
But legal experts contend it isn’t that simple: Ratification deadlines lapsed and five states have rescinded their approval, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school, prompting questions about the president’s authority with the measure more than 50 years after it first passed. Should Biden make the call, experts predict it would face significant legal challenges.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/16/politics/kirsten-gillibrand-equal-rights-amendment/index.html
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