John, Last month, after nearly fifty years of legal precedent, the extremist majority of Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade, denying bodily autonomy for millions of Americans. Abortion bans are already taking effect in numerous states, with Congress currently lacking the numbers needed to codify Roe into federal law. But there’s another option to protect the right to choose: the Equal Rights Amendment. First sent to the states for ratification in 1972, the requisite 38 states have ratified the ERA, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex. Now it’s up to the National Archivist, David Ferriero, to certify it as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. So far, Ferriero has failed to follow through. Under the direction of former Attorney General Bill Barr, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), in a January 2020 memo argued that the ERA has not been properly ratified because of an arbitrary ten-year deadline. The National Archivist, in accordance with this opinion, has refused to certify and publish the ERA. Sign if you agree: To protect reproductive rights, the National Archivist must certify the Equal Rights Amendment. In April of last year, we authored a coalition letter urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to instruct the OLC to rescind its 2020 advisory opinion, which will clear the way for the National Archivist to publish and certify the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. A January 2022 opinion from the OLC made clear that Congress may act to extend the (arbitrary) deadline for ratification of the ERA, but “the Department of Justice is defending the Archivist.” We and over 200 constitutional law scholars agree: the 2020 OLC opinion is wrong and must be rescinded by the Department of Justice. The Constitution does not make the Justice Department a gatekeeper on the legal validity of an amendment, nor does it provide Congress with authority to impose a deadline on ratification. The Equal Rights Amendment has been ratified. It’s time to make it official. Tell Attorney General Garland to rescind the 2020 OLC opinion in full and instruct the National Archivist to certify immediately the ERA. In solidarity,
Free Speech For People | 
