WILMINGTON — As the federal government continues to hash out the sunset of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), Wilmington City Council passed a resolution Tuesday in support of its ratification in North Carolina.
Sponsored by Mayor Pro Tem Margaret Haynes, the resolution states:
“The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment guarantees and protects the civil rights of the people; however, the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause has not been interpreted to guarantee equal rights for women in the same way and to the extent that members of other suspect categories have received such protections. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) would remedy that by situating sex as a suspect category invoking judicial strict scrutiny, just as race, national origin, and religion do.”
The move is more symbolic than anything, as local governments across North Carolina have passed similar resolutions in show of support.
The ERA isn’t recognized by the United States Constitution and seeks to prohibit “legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters,” according to the National Archives. It essentially ensures by law that equal rights are recognized and people are not discriminated against according to sex.
Three sections proposed for the 28th amendment include:
Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
Though written almost a century ago, the ERA needed support from three-quarters of the states — 38 — to ratify it. Virginia became the 38th in 2020, but a state archivist wouldn’t certify it.
Thereafter, the Trump administration sent a legal memo noting the deadline passed and it was too late for states to ratify the ERA. Four decades ago, Congress put a deadline on the books, noting if states didn’t ratify by 1982 — which they voted to extend from 1979 — the amendment would not be legally binding.
The only option to move forward would be if courts weighed in — Virginia has been embroiled in a legal battle since — the process started over from scratch, or if Congress readdressed it.
In January 2021, a joint resolution was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives to eliminate the original deadline. House Joint Resolution 208 arrived in the Senate that March and has yet to be addressed. Republican support likely will fall short according to some analysts.
The only states left to ratify the amendment include Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.
“Margaret, can you educate me on this,” council member Neil Anderson asked at the Wilmington City Council’s agenda briefing. “North Carolina has never passed it, I presume, or we wouldn’t be voting on it?”
Haynes said she had been approached years ago by the League of Women Voters about presenting the resolution to council. “This is just a movement to bring it up again because other states have ratified this,” she said.
“Are we one of them is my question,” Anderson iterated.
“No, I don’t believe we are — this is happening throughout the state,” Haynes said. “This is simply trying to encourage the general assembly to ratify it.”
At the council meeting Tuesday night, Haynes read off the resolution. It passed unanimously without discussion.
The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners passed a similar resolution of its own in August calling for the ratification.
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