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Wednesday, February 19, 2025 - 12:29 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA FOR 30+ YRS

First Published & Printed in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA FOR OVER 30 YEARS!

To Preserve, Protect, and Defend

Will Biden Create a Constitutional Crisis

A group of 48 Democrat U.S. Senators have called on President Joe Biden to order the Archivist to “certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution before he leaves office next month.

The problem with this scheme is that pretending that ERA is a part of the Constitution would violate the clear U.S. Supreme Court 1982 ruling in National Organization for Women v. Idaho that ERA is legally dead. In 2021, a federal court judge affirmed in Virginia v. Ferriero that the late ratifications by Virginia, Illinois, and Nevada were null and void. Even ERA proponent Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said that for ERA to be a valid amendment to the Constitution, then the process must “start over.” Constitutional amendments require a supermajority to ratify and there is no public support for this controversial amendment that seeks to redefine sex.

Yet, the Democrat senators and activists are actually asking the President to ignore the third branch of government and ignore the will of the people who rejected ERA fifty years ago. This ploy is delusional and will only undermine the rule of law. Their letter to Biden clearly states why they want to shoehorn ERA into the Constitution: abortion. They write, “It would establish the premise that sex-based distinctions in access to reproductive care are unconstitutional, and therefore that abortion bans — which single out women for unfair denial of medical treatment based on sex — violate a constitutional right to sex equality.”

For years, ERA proponents stated that ERA had nothing to do with abortion. Now they finally agree with the ERA opponents that the true purpose of ratifying ERA is to enshrine the right to abortion in the Constitution. When ERA was debated in the 1970s, everyone knew how to define “sex”. Today, “sex” has a myriad of definitions, including transgender issues. ERA would harm the rights of women.

Joe, say it ain’t so, and don’t go there. The president should protect and defend our Constitution — and all three branches of government should agree on what is contained in our fundamental governing document.

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Anne Schlafly is the daughter of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016), Chairman of Eagle Forum, and the author of Faithfully, Phyllis In the Kitchen: the Phyllis Schlafly CookbookHow to Speak LiberalIs Our Constitution in Jeopardy?, and Lessons In LEADERSHIP.