Letter to the editor: ERA needs to be enacted as constitutional amendment

Editor,

I support Nancy Halvorson’s Letter regarding the certification and publishing of the Equal Rights Amendment. Ms. Halvorson, president of the League of Women Voters Clark County, writes that President Biden can make possible the enactment of the ERA as a constitutional amendment. He can instruct the national archivist to certify and publish the amendment.

I encourage all the men who love the women in their lives to contact their representatives in favor of this amendment. It will bless these women, their daughters and their daughter’s daughters in unforeseeable future ways. As Ruth Bader Ginsberg said, this amendment will be the bedrock of women’s rights. Right now, the 14th Amendment, the equal protection clause, has done the heavy lifting for women. Given the direction of some of the Supreme Court’s decisions, who knows how secure the 14th Amendment will stay. After all, Mr. Trump wants to take away some elements of birthright citizenship.

There are arguments that the original ERA had a seven-year time limit; that time limit was not written in the body of the amendment, so it isn’t constitutional. Later when the Trump administration’s DOJ, in its Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), wrote an opinion that the

timeline was final and the ERA was dead, that wasn’t constitutional either. Later, the Biden administration’s DOJ opined, in its OLC opinion, that neither the time limit or the attempted revocation of ratification, as had been tried in several states, impacts the viability of the amendment process. These arguments can be tested in court once it has become an amendment that has been certified and published by the National Archives. All that is needed is a request from President Biden.

I echo Ms. Halvorson’s invitation to urge President Biden to contact the National Archives. I just wrote the LWV; they provide a space in the Contact section. I wrote to the White House, senators and our representatives; it took less than an hour. From the White House website, you can use the Contact Us screen and then press the “Opt-in to send and receive text messages to and from President Biden.”

You can Google the websites of each of our elected officials. Each will have a “Contact” section. On Sen. Patty Murray’s website, under the Contact heading, there is a section where you can write her. There is also a list of her different offices throughout the state, so you can call her at your closest branch. For Sen. Maria Cantwell, it’s the same situation. On her website under the contact section, there is a “Share Your Thoughts” heading. For Rep. Marie Glusenkamp Perez, on the first page of her website at the bottom of the page, you’ll find her D.C. office and her various local offices. You could call or write to any of those locations.

It is time to claim the rights of the ERA. Please write to all of these offices. Women and men need it.

Mike Myers

Battle Ground