Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s no surprise that President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr would unleash the full force of the Department of Justice to thwart ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).  In a newly released legal opinion, the Office of Legal Counsel asserts that the 1979 deadline for passage “has expired and is no longer pending before the States.” 

We know that Trump opposes women’s rights and gender equality, and that with Bill Barr, Stephen Moore and his other cronies enabling his worst tendencies, our nation of laws is being subverted to suit his misogynistic whims. 

Legislation is pending in Congress to remove the 1979 deadline which appears in the preface to the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1972 resolution. NOW and our grassroots activists are working hard to assure that this happens. 

This announcement is clearly designed to cast a shadow over the Virginia General Assembly’s effort to make Virginia the 38th—and final–state needed to approve the ERA. But Virginia legislators are passionately committed to passage of the amendment and will not be deterred. No amount of Trump-logic legal wishful thinking can deny the ERA’s progress or stop women from demanding full Constitutional equality. 

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745

Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A lawsuit by Alabama’s Attorney General to block the renewed push to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment is, as the ERA Coalition stated, “a shameful effort to keep women from gaining Constitutional equality.”

This crowd of extremist state attorneys general continues to march in lockstep with Bill Barr’s increasingly unconstitutional Justice Department. There is nothing they won’t do to undermine equality and perpetuate the patriarchy. In his suit, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall says that “the ERA would not promote true equality, but rather a far-left agenda.”

The false assertion that the ERA is unnecessary is the same kind of hateful trope used to undermine civil rights laws during the 1960’s.  NOW opposes this clear and shameful action to block equal rights and justice for women, and with our ERA Coalition partners we will stay on the front lines defending the ERA until it is ratified into law.

Contact

Press Team, press@now.org, 202.695.8221

Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House of Representatives’ vote to impeach President Donald J. Trump is a solemn step that will test our Constitutional rule of law.  Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the most diverse House of Representatives in history are, in the Speaker’s words, acting as “custodians of the Constitution” and we are proud of their leadership today.   

Demanding foreign interference in our elections and obstructing the sacred duty of Congress to investigate is illegal, immoral and impeachable.  Each member of Congress swore to protect the Constitution and to fail to do so now would have dangerous repercussions for our country for generations to come. 

Everyday NOW’s grassroots leaders and activists across the country are working on our six core issues: Reproductive Rights, Economic Justice, Ending Violence Against Women, Racial Justice, LGBTQIA+ Rights and Constitutional Equality through the Equal Rights Amendment. But if our democracy is allowed to crumble, then how can our work for equality for all be successful? With this impeachment vote the U.S. Congress must uphold the constitutional democracy that we all value and defend so strongly.  

NOW calls on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to let the witnesses speak and allow Senators to fulfill their Constitutional role as objective, informed jurors in an impeachment trial. 

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745