Equal Rights Amendment Talking Points
  • There is no protection against gender discrimination in the U.S. Constitution without a ratified Equal Rights Amendment.
  • 92% of Americans polled believe there should be gender equality in the Constitution, and 72% believe it is already in place.
  • Contrary to popular belief, the Equal Rights Amendment, passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress, with bipartisan support, in 1972, was never fully ratified by the states.  35 of the required 38 states have ratified.
  • Without a ratified Equal Rights Amendment, the U. S. Supreme Court has refused to hear cases regarding gender discrimination.*  Therefore, they only receive intermediate scrutiny, not the full force of legal evidence that strict scrutiny at the Supreme Court level would provide to enforce existing and future laws. 
  • Both Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsgburg have stated that gender equality is not a Constitutionally protected right.
  • “Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t.” – Justice Antonin Scalia, Hastings College of Law, September 17, 2010. 
  • "I would like my granddaughters, when they pick up the Constitution, to see that notion – that women and men are persons of equal stature – I’d like them to see that is a basic principle of our society.”  – Justice Ruth Bader ​Ginsburg.
    "If I could choose an amendment to add to the Constitution, it would be The Equal Rights Amendment." – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg April 18 2014
  • The Congressional Research Service has identified ample legal arguments that the ERA is still legally viable:  the precedent of the so-called Madison Amendment (27th) which was ratified 203 years after it was introduced; the fact that the artificial deadline for ratification is in the resolving clause and not in the body of the amendment; and that Congress has full authority over the amendment process as granted by Article V of the Constitution, which was demonstrated when they extended the initial deadline for ratification in 1978.
  • There are bills in Congress to remove the deadline for ratification (117th Congress S.J. Res. 1 and H.J. Res. 17).  Once these bills are passed, there will be no excuse for states to deny ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.  Virginia, Nevada, Illinois and Arizona will be introducing the Equal Rights Amendment joint resolution in their state legislatures in 2017.
  • Sign on as cosponsor and support passage of the bills to remove the deadline, and move the ratification effort forward.  Once and for all, enshrine gender equality in the Constitution, with a ratified Equal Rights Amendment.
  • Some people are confused with equal rights and abortion rights. They think if women have equal rights, anti-abortion laws will be weakened. *** These are two different legal arguments. *** Unfortunately, it is a red herring.
  • Please use #RemovetheExcuse in your social media hastag when posting about ERA ratification.
Talking points provided by Candace Graham and Eileen Davis of Women-Matter.org 
 http://www.women-matter.org/ for deeper dive.
 http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/Files/Documents/Timelines/WomensRightstimeline.pdf for a walk through history
Map views of ratified states and political leanings, red, blue, purple, of each state.
Other good sites:
http://www.richiroutreach.com/
http://www.backtodemocracy.com/