On May 6, 2021, please join Kirsten Scheurer Branigan and Linda Harvey host a virtual discussion with Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey 11th District, regarding the long overdue passing of the Equal Rights Act (ERA) in 2021 and other related legal issues. The program will be held from 6-7 p.m.
Congresswoman Sherrill, a strong supporter of the ERA, voted on March 17, 2021 in favor of Joint Resolution 222-204, which passed the US House of Representatives. If enacted, this bill would remove the previously imposed 7-year deadline for states to ratify the ERA to amend the United States Constitution.
Although Congress officially passed the ERA as a constitutional amendment in 1972, ratification was required by three-fourths of the states (38 states) within 7 years (or by 1979, which was then extended until 1982). While 35 states ratified the ERA in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the proposed amendment expired without ratification by three more states, as needed. Recently, a federal court ruled that ratification by three states (Nevada in 2017, Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2019) occurred too late. The Senate will now consider the Joint Resolution.
This historic move occurred during Women’s History Month and is one step further in the long journey of almost 100 years to pass the ERA and provide equal rights for men and women in the eyes of the law. Although women have made great strides since the passage of state and federal civil rights laws, women are still not guaranteed full legal gender equality under the US Constitution. To date, the United States is the only developed nation in the world with a Constitution that does not explicitly guarantee legal protections for women and essentially makes them second-class citizens.
For more details on the ERA, please click here.
To register for this program before the deadline of April 30th, please click here. A zoom link will be provided upon your RSVP.
***Contributions are welcome but not required. The emphasis of this program is to increase awareness about the efforts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in 2021. If you wish to attend without contributing, simply click “Attend without Contribution” when you register.
For more information on how to get involved in the effort to pass the ERA in 2021, please feel free to email Kirsten Scheurer Branigan at Kirsten@KSBraniganlaw.com.
