As Joe Biden was getting his coat and leaving the White House, he has announced that he has ratified the equal rights amendment! Just like that! He can do that? What took him so long?
But legal experts contend it isn’t that simple: Ratification deadlines lapsed and five states have rescinded their approval, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school, prompting questions about the president’s authority to ratify the amendment more than 50 years after it first passed.
Biden is leaning on the American Bar Association’s opinion, the senior official said, which “stresses that no time limit was included in the text of the Equal Rights Amendment” and “stresses that the Constitution’s framers wisely avoided the chaos that would have resulted if states were able to take back the ratifying votes at any time.”
This is an interesting bomb to throw back over his shoulder. Will Trump fight it? Is this another issue that will tear the Republican party apart? Will Zombie Phyllis Schlafly rise from her grave to haunt the halls of Congress?
I approve of the core principles of the amendment, but I also approve of any effort to sow chaos in the Trump administration.
The more worrying part of that story is that 5 states have rescinded their ratification.
What??
Prediction: Democrats will do nothing. Republicans will avoid saying anything (except for the usual suspects) because they know the thundering dunderheads on the Supreme Court will make it vanish for them.
Maybe if Biden had done this at the beginning of his term and gathered the resources to make it stick, it would have meant something. As it is, this is just a useless old guy making an empty gesture.
Republicans and Democrats favored the ERA at first, until Phyllis Schlafly started campaigning and saying it would abolish single-sex public restrooms, and you’d have men peeing at a urinal next to a woman’s bathroom stall.
Sound familiar? Conservatives are obsessed with excretion.
Sorry, the Democrats appear to be a day late a dollar short. Again. Why wasn’t this addressed sooner? Sounds like plenty of loopholes for the Republicans to explore, or extort, with the SOTUS as a last resort.
PZ @3:
“Sound familiar? Conservatives are obsessed with excretion.”
Not at all surprising. They are mostly a bunch of pissants.
I’m guessing that PZ’s predictions @2 are correct; and even if this makes the news at all and somebody actually pushes it, I don’t doubt that SCOTUS’ gang of six will find some apologetic that allows them to show us who they really are yet again.
One can hope, though. 8-)
I actually like the idea of light subversion. This isn’t it.
Give these short-attention-span people an endless stream of something to focus their hatred on, but make it entirely inconsequential.
As an example, Democrats could start wearing their flag broaches upside down.
I suppose my point is to distract and run out the clock.
I first heard about the ERA in the late ’70s when in high school. I figured it was a no brainer. It not being ratified was the beginning* of my disillusionment with government.
I was around for Viet Nam and Nixon but wasn’t old enough to pay attention. Their contribution to the disillusionment came later.
PZ, No 3., I’m old enough to remember those arguments: If the ERA is ratified, we’ll have gay marriage, women serving in combat, and men using women’s bathrooms. What’s funny is that we ended up getting all of that anyway even without the ERA. So I wonder what the current arguments against it would be.
Note: Yes, I know, trans women are women, but not to the people who oppose the ERA. So far as they’re concerned it’s men using women’s bathrooms. So from their standpoint all that stuff happened even without it.
All this proves that ‘equal rights’ in any respect in this country/society/world is a sick joke!
^nbsp; Martha and the Vandellas were right, Sing it with me: Nowhere to Run to baby, nowhere to hide!
And, with that empty gesture, biden has shown, once again, that he is a FRAUD. The members of the corporate owned dnc are his backup singers in that terrible off-key dirge!
Nobody will give this a second thought in the chaos unleashed in Trump’s first 100 days.
Biden is leaning on the American Bar Association’s opinion, the senior official said, which “stresses that no time limit was included in the text of the Equal Rights Amendment”…
Um…didn’t the ERA have a sentence saying the States had seven years to ratify it?
Also, in any case the President has absolutely ZERO role in ratifying Constitutional amendments.
Speaking of Phylis Schlafly… I was trying to look something up on Conservapedia (I know, I know) yesterday and it was incredibly slow. Then it just died completely. I only get timeouts now. Maybe Andrew Schlaflys head exploded when he read about this that the resulting shockwave took out his favorite project at the same time?
Correction: there was NOT a time limit. The third part of the amendment is: “Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.”
This is from the CNN coverage on Biden’s statement:
So, Biden is expressing an opinion. It won’t change the state of the 28th which is still in limbo.
Also, per that article, there was no time limit in the amendment when it passed Congress and there is no limit unless it’s stated in the amendment. The 27th amendment took almost 203 years to be ratified.
However, congress did set a date in the joint resolution (H.J.Res. 208) that sent the amendment to the states which was “within seven years from this date”…this date being March 22, 1972, so March 22, 1979. There was an attempt to extend that deadline with another joint resolution but that only got a simple majority.
So, in a word: it’s legally murky…stupidly murky. Everyone should have equal rights.
This sounded fishy to me at first, but I dashed off the quick comment @6, and then this old dude took a nap.
I’m woke now 8-), so I looked it up. There is a time limit, not in the amendment itself, but in the resolution that sends it off for ratification (as robro reported before me); and that deadline has indeed passed. That strikes me as more inportant because, if the time limit were in the text of the amendment itself, it would have no effect until ratification, which makes no sense.
Although I hate to say it, I think we don’t have a 28th amendment.
I still think it’ll be fun to see what all the arguments are, though. My initial Google query a little while ago turned up lots of stories about Biden’s opinion. I’ll begin my usual weekday TV news watching in about twenty minutes. We’ll see whether anybody thinks it’s important enough to report.
However, congress did set a date in the joint resolution (H.J.Res. 208) that sent the amendment to the states which was “within seven years from this date”…this date being March 22, 1972, so March 22, 1979.
Yeah, I coulda swore that time limit was in the original amendment. Everyone was certainly acting like there was a deadline at the time: I remember a (kinda sad) last-ditch push to get it ratified that year, or maybe the year before?
Federal courts have upheld that it is not part of the Constitution several times from what I’ve read. Biden’s statement doesn’t really change anything. If it’s going to be counted as being part of the Constitution, it will have to be decided in courts, eventually the Supreme Court (good luck with that one). For the record, I’ve always supported the ERA, but this doesn’t seem like a serious action.
So in other words, it’s just another attempt to create a PR poison pill out of something the Democrats actually covertly oppose (or else Clinton or Biden or Obama would have said something when they took office and had control of Congress and the Republicans would have had to wait a minimum of 2 years to do anything about it), by making the Republicans do something which is unpopular with possible Democratic voters. This was a juvenile tactic when Bill Clinton did it with arsenic levels in water in January of 2000, and Biden already just pulled this same tactic the other day with removing Cuba from the “sponsors of terrorism” list, which will obviously be reversed on January 21.
It’s the Democrats doing what they always do when they get out of power: suddenly rediscover all the things the base likes, which they deliberately sat on for years because they really, really, really don’t want to do any of it. (Remember in 2006 and 2008 when the Democrats explicitly ran on a platform of immediately ending the Iraq war, and holding the Bush administration responsible? Remember how in 2007, after taking the Senate, Pelosi immediately declared all of that “off the table”? And how Obama’s first major act of foreign policy was to ask Congress to fund another “surge” in Iraq? And how Obama tried to keep us in Iraq beyond Bush’s 2011 deadline, and only withdrew the troops reluctantly at the deadline when the Iraqi government refused to extend the agreement not to accuse the US of war crimes?) The hypocrisy is really just unbearable; the party exists to make sure all the support for doing things like that is shunted into votes and contributions for a group which will never, under any circumstances, act on any of it. Voting for Democrats or donating to them is more of a waste than supporting third parties.
@ ^ Trump supporter – enabler and traitor to the leftwing tankie Vicar :
How many times lately – like in our lifetimes value of “lately” – have Third party spoilers achieved anything they claim to want or won any Presidential elections?
The only thing the likes of Jill Stein have managed to do is get Trump elected by fooling the most guillible and foolish and self-destructive of unreasonable, irrational faux progressive voters into de facto voting for the opposite of what they claim to want & thus siphoning votes away and enabling the Trumpists and furthest reichwing extremists to tiumph to the detriment of our entire shared planet. But then that’s what you honestly wanted all along isn’t it?
Just curious but do actually think you are fooling anyone even yourself here, Vicar?
@StevoR
To be clear, you’ve gone from blaming people who didn’t vote for Trump for being responsible for Trump being elected – to claiming people who didn’t vote for Trump were engaged in a deliberate plot to get Trump elected.
I think you need to lay off the beer mate, have a cup of tea and a lie down.
@ ^ Silentbob : Oh FFS don’t tell me you were actually fooled here by Vicar too! Disappointing enough that the Adelaide Strikers lost & ended their T20 BBL season tonight without you showing you aren’t as smart and rational as I’d previously thought you were too. Expected better thinking from you here.
Its very horribly simple dude. Last – both most recent and final ever – legitimate USoA election with their execrable excuse for a political system and badly flawed such as it was kinda Democracy offered two and only two choices.
Those were Fascist (variety Trump kultist) and NOT fascist.
People could choose to either vote against the Fascists and NOT enable Trump to get power. To unify behind Kamala Harris and do all they could to get her elected and thus see a Democratic (both senses of word) govt which would mean Trumpism lost and Trump finally saw some justice and goes to jail or ..Not.
Vicar chose not. Beholder chose not. They chose to de facto vote and argue for Trump instead of the only other alternative. They choose to attack and undermine the only actual choice other than the Fascist in the fucked up, shitty system the UsoA deplorably has.
A vote for anyone other than Kamala Harris. Staying home and not voting. That was actively choosing to support rather than stop Trump. With every last fucking thing that implies and means for everyone else on this Pale Blue Dot we all live upon and share.
What part of that exactly is unclear?
Where exactly am I wrong here in your I’m thinking right now badly mistaken opinion please?
Oh & whilst am at it & asking you questions – did you ever answer my question about whether or not you would agree to just leave John Morales alone?
I don’t agree with him on everything and, yeah, he can be a pain but, FFS dude, learn when to drop it and learn when to not strawmonster others views and misrepresent them becoz I didn’t say it was necessarily a deliberate plot – merely the fucking reality it is in practice..
Wait, wrong tense. Was not is. Now we live in this new world that the likes of Vicar, Beholder, Shit Stein and the other Putridity Disunity traitors to Democracy and the hopes of anything ever getting much better for us.
Almost got therough a comment without a fucking typo or blockquote fail.. Almost. Sigh. Guess yáll know where..
In middle of heatwave (35 degres C today 37 degrees C forecast so that’s 95 Fahrenheit & 98 F dgrees US sticking-with- -outdated-awkward-units temps – and struggling to sleep -even more than usual – and, yeah, quite fucking pissed off right now here.
FWIW becoz cannot edit comments here clarity fix :
Wait, what? Equal rights aren’t in your constitution? It’s the first article in ours!
It won’t hold up in court, at all. It’s grasping at straws. The abortion issue will go back to the states. It’s an unpopular view, but the correct view. Let states handle themselves. If the people in those states want it or not they will decide.
@ ^ Ducksmcclucken : Isn”t handling yourself now verboten according to Repugliklan puritanism?
“They” is who now? Who is “they” now?
Do you think that Trump’s treason SCOTUS deserve sany respect whatoever gibveven how its been fixed and who is onit sunce Trump rigged it? If so, why?
I don’t.
Fix FFS :
(You try sleeping in the heatwave I’m living through right now and typing with my fucked up fingers!)
Do you really think it is or ever could be “corrrect” to deny human beings control over their own bodies? What would you think and say if I told you what I decided YOU had to do about & inside and to and with your body against your will?
I’m not versed enough to know how meaningful this is in the long run, but I know whoever tries to shut down the ERA will be our enemy. Though it’s not like our enemies are hiding their hostility these days.
When the EEC reminded Eire that they had not yet appointed an official to enforce equal pay laws Eire put out an advertisement offering different rates for men and women.
From one of Denys Parsons’ collections of oddities and misprints
Regarding the time limit, the Constitution does not authorize such time limits. It is established law that, for instance, States are not allowed to add new conditions on the qualifications for Representatives. So, a State can not pass a valid law that says that a Representative must be 25 years old . . . and a virgin. As with so many things in the law, there is always a “yes, but”.
Regarding enforcement, if somebody sues for illegal sex discrimination, the current test is what is called intermediate scrutiny. For “full” constitutional rights, the test is “strict scrutiny”. So, the way this will be established are discrimination cases in which the plaintiff argues for strict scrutiny and then various courts will have to chime in with their views and eventually the USSC will have to decide.
Lesrn from the Rrpublican voters. They make their politicians fear them! If the asshole candidate is a legacy democrat who lacks interest in ERA primary the hell out of him/her. Don’t get taken in by bland assurances, only accept people willing to walk the walk.
And Joe Biden was a “nice” candidate but without the determination to charge into the breach. Such candidates are a luxury that belonged in the 1970s.
What? Why did I get mentioned in this thread? Oh, it’s Stevor.
Some geopolitical stances have allegedly changed, but the baseless accusations and sanctimonious multi-post prattling has not. I should take the advice of those quoted above (try to guess who they are!)
As for the ERA, it would be nice to have, but this is not a serious effort. It’s only Genocide Joe attempting and failing at distracting his base.
An Equal Rights Amendment would rescind the Dobb’s decision that ruled women have different rights than men because women had different rights than men at the nations inception.
So if the ERA repeals that difference then Dobb’s is gone.
SCOTUS will simply not allow that.
If the people in those states want it or not they will decide.
That’s exactly what the slave-owning states said in response to the Emancipation Proclamation. And that’s exactly what the most reactionary state politicians say EVERY SINGLE TIME the US Government tries to enforce US Constitutional rights on US soil.
@34. beholder : I notice you failed to address the points I made about you helping and enabling Trump by excessively and exclusively attacking the ONLY alternative. Or answer the questions I’ve raised like :
Deflecting and resorting to a personal attack on me does not excuse your conduct here nor what YOU (& Vicar, et al.) have done which has made the world a vastly worse place.
It merely reflects even worse on you than facing up to your horrific mistake and its consequences for everyone already does.
I’m sure you’d love for everyone to just memory hole your role in enabling Trumpist variety Fascism to destroy the United States and the rest of the planet. Tough. I will keep reminding you and others and holding you accountable for your actions here. Especially when you continue to fail to recognise and accept the magnitude of your errors here.
@ 22. Silentbob
The only way to stop Trump – to stop Fascism – was to VOTE FOR KAMALA HARRIS & the Democratic party. To support them rather than attacking and under-mining them. That was the reality. Anyone who didn’t vote for and support Kamala has to bear some blame for their failure to stop Trump in the shitty, badly in need of reform, fucked up political system the USoA currently has.
Those who went out of their way to attack Kamala Harris and the Democratic party and advocate against them when the choice was between them or Trump’s Fascism – as beholder , Vicar, etc.. did – bear a lot more blame than most.
Again, what part of that is unclear to you?
I’ve been consistent on this since before the election was held. I warned people of this and I will continue to remind people of this.
By attacking and seeking to hurt the Democratic party and Kamala Harris, Vicar, beholder and the rest of the Putridity Disunity mob have helped put Trump in power and thereby harmed us all and they should NEVER be allowed to forget that for the rest of their lives.
Do you think otherwise and, if so, why?
Yeah, learn from Republican voters…and actually vote. It’s amazing how the useless American left has somehow deluded itself that not voting and constantly handing the right win after win is a strategy for success! And then they wonder why the overton window is also moving rightward.
But I guess any excuse is valid to stay home and grind skins in Fortnite on voting day, gotta’ set priorities, eh?
@ StevoR
Mate, pull your fucking head in. In a democracy, no one should be vilified for not voting for a party or candidate they do not support. And no one should be lambasted (least of all by some drunken clown on the other side of the world) for voting according to their conscience.
You have the right to criticise the vote of exactly one person – yourself.
@ ^ AugustusVerger : Truth!
Thankyou.
Also learn from the Repugs and actually SUPPORT and unify behind your candidates.
Incidentally, a meme from Occupy Democrats on fb notes :
Note that 30.84 plus 1.06 equals 31.9 – or in other words, having done the maths YES third party spoilers put Trump in power. As did those who didin’t vote perhaps discouraged by the evil lie that the two parties were the same. Which they fucking well weren’t.
@ 39. Silentbob : We live in a society. In a world – one where famously no one is an island entire unto themselves as John Donne put it. Where everyone is affected by the choices of others – and when others choose poorly and choose to hurt others and make the world worse for everyone by their votes and their actions. By, say, voting for literal fucking nazis.
You seem to saying that Vicar and beholder and others of their ilk shouldn’t face criticism or pushback or even people reminding them of what they’ve done with their choice of words and actions? Actions which are literally destroying the world as we know it. Y’know Global Overheating, Fall of Democracy, rise of fascism. All that not so easy listening metaphorical jazz. That I should be silent and just, what, put up with the hell that I can see coming becoz of that. Becoz I’m not perfect and have fucked up before and yeah, like to have the odd beer now and then. Well? Fuck that.
Also did you ever actually answer my question over whether you will stop pestering John Morales please?
PS. Silentbob : It isn’t just their vote that I criticise and call out beholder, Vicar and the other Purity Disunity klowns on. Its their arguing and opposing and attacking the only actual alternative in the shitty two pary binary political system the USoA has.
Also you didn’t answer my question on exactly what part of what I wrote in # 23 was unclear to you. Please would you do so?
If your conscience says that when choosing between Kamala Harris and DonOld Fucking Trump that Trumnp is the more ethical and better choice then your conscience and heart as well as your head is very badly broken, warped and fucked up.
Vilified? Or called out for the harm they do when they vote for and argue for and empower bigots, racists, homophobes, transphobes, people who hurt so many others and make our shared world so much worse for all. Vicar, beholder, the purity Disunmity mob had choices. I think its fair to examine and criticise and call them out on their choices when they hurt others – hurt all of us – so very much.
Oh how generous of you!!!1ty!. Does that apply to just me or everyone. Should no one criticise voters who vote for nazis? For hateful bigoted parties that deny science and hurt us all? Should no one criticise Trump vioters or Trump via Stein / West / other spoilers voters? Or is that supposed to only apply to me? Do you think you have any right to judge others who vote for Trumnp incl through Stein etc..or don’t bother to vote at all?
Actually I have the right to freely express my views and use my right of free speech – and equally to be held accountable for what isay which I accept & see as fair and acknowledge all folks have that same right too.
LoL, can’t even bear the responsibility for your own actions, Bob Who Should Have Stayed Silent? All of your decisions and actions can be scrutinized and criticised, don’t know why you think you deserve a Get Out of Jail Free card for anything. Did anyone force you to cast your vote a certain way? Guess no, so it was your own idea. Or Fukars, or Behonky’s. Everyone can call you out for what you did. That’s the world of adults, buddy. There people own their decisions.
If you want to be treated like a child, that’s on you. Then however you should also not expect to be treated like an adult in any other respect.