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