Liberty denied for any
Liberty denied for all
Editing, excerpting by Carolyn Bennett
From RA’s “War on Women” speech
From National Council of Women’s Organizations’ ERA notes
In this together
“Our nation is facing a dangerous onslaught of bigoted,
authoritarian policies and practices pushed not only by extremist right-wing
groups of fanatics but by people (including Republicans and Democrats) who are generally thought to be more
mainstream,” U.S. presidential candidate Rocky Anderson said in his April 28 campaign speech.
For the first time in our history, he said, we have Legislative and Executive branches of
government enacting laws permitting the president —in the manner of tyrants — to target anyone: U.S. citizens to be
kidnapped, disappeared, held incommunicado indefinitely in military prisons without
charge, trial, legal assistance, without the right of habeas corpus.
Under LAW
Writ of Habeas Corpus (review)
The Writ of Habeas Corpus is an ancient common-law writ
issued by a court or judge directing one who holds another in custody to produce the body of the person before the
court for some specified purpose. The most important variety of the writ is
that used to correct violations of personal liberty by directing judicial
inquiry into the legality of a detention.
In the British colonies in North America, by the time of the
American Revolution, the rights to habeas corpus were popularly regarded as
among the basic protections of individual liberty. The U.S. Constitution
guarantees that the privilege ‘shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of
rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.’
United States (current law)
Under 20th century U.S. Supreme Court interpretation of the
constitutional rights, people accused of crime or prisoners may file habeas
corpus petitions challenging their convictions.
 |
| We the people Enlightened Indivisible Under law |
Habeas corpus proceedings may be employed to obtain release
of the accused prior to trial on the ground that the bail set is excessive.
In cases of a person arrested on a warrant of extradition, a
proceeding in habeas corpus may be instituted to challenge the validity of the
warrant.
“Our nation is being transformed,” Anderson says; “our
Republic is being undermined.” Human rights, rights under law, women’s rights
are being denied.
Women
Vicious attacks on women, Anderson says, are part of the
undoing of fundamental principles of equality and justice.
In the states of Utah, Kansas, Arizona, Georgia, South
Dakota, Virginia and others, officials have taken outrageous actions that invade
the privacy and personal being of women, that threaten healthcare professionals
and health services providers, that deny homes to adoptable children, and that criminalize
what should be protected rights as a matter of law and consistent with the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The attacks on women compel that we fulfill the unmet,
urgent imperative — “this time a successful fight” — to legislate and ratify and
secure in the Constitution of the United States the “Equal Rights Amendment.”
ERA (review)
 |
| Suffragist leader Alice Paul |
In its first introduction the Equal Rights Amendment was considered
the next necessary step after ratification of Woman Suffrage, the 19th
Amendment affirming women’s right to vote — guaranteeing ‘equal justice under
law’ to all citizens.
The Equal Rights Amendment was written in 1923 by suffragist
leader Alice Paul, founder of the National Woman’s Party. Its text is simple
and straightforward.
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.
After its1923 proposal and introduction
in the Congress of the United States, the Equal Rights Amendment “was
introduced into every session of Congress between 1923 and 1972, when it was
passed and sent to the states for ratification. The seven-year time limit in the ERA’s
proposing clause was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982. At the deadline,
the ERA had been ratified by 35 (short three) of the required 38 states for
ratification. Since that time, the amendment has been reintroduced in every
session of the U.S. Congress.
 |
| U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney 2011 |
In the 110th Congress (2007 - 2008), the Equal Rights Amendment was
introduced as S.J. Res. 10 (Sen. Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts, lead sponsor)
and H.J. Res. 40 (Rep. Carolyn Maloney, New York, lead sponsor). In the 112th Congress (2011-2012) are S.J.
Res. 21 (lead sponsor Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey) and H.J. Res. 69 (lead
sponsors Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, and Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Illinois).
On March 8, 2011, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin)
introduced H.J. Res. 47, which would remove the ERA’s ratification deadline and
make it part of the Constitution when three more states ratify. The Senate
companion bill, S.J. Res. 39, was introduced on March 22, 2012, by Sen.
Benjamin Cardin (D-Maryland). To add the ERA to the U.S. Constitution requires
passage of the bills by a two-thirds vote in each house of the U.S. Congress
and ratification by 38 states.
 |
The National Council of Women’s
Organizations has outlined the imperative for ERA inscription into the Constitution
of the United States.
Without the ERA, the Constitution does not explicitly guarantee that the rights it protects are held equally by all citizens without regard to sex. The first – and still the only – right specifically affirmed as equal for women and men is the right to vote.
The equal protection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment was first applied to sex discrimination only in 1971, and it has never been interpreted to grant equal rights on the basis of sex in the uniform and inclusive way that the ERA would.
The ERA would provide a clearer judicial standard for deciding cases of sex discrimination, since federal and state courts (some working with state ERAs, some without) still reflect confusion and inconsistency in dealing with such claims. It would also clarify sex discrimination jurisprudence and 40 years of precedent for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who claimed in an interview reported in the January 2011 California Lawyer that the Constitution, specifically the 14th Amendment, does not protect against sex discrimination.
The ERA would provide a strong legal defense against a rollback of the significant advances in women’s rights made in the past 50 years.
Suffragist march 1917
Without it, Congress can weaken or replace existing laws on women’s rights, and judicial precedents on issues of gender equality can be eroded or ignored by reactionary courts responding to a conservative political agenda.
Without the ERA, women regularly and men occasionally have to fight long, expensive, and difficult legal battles in an effort to prove that their rights are equal to those of the other sex.
The ERA would improve the United States’ human rights standing in the world community. The governing documents of many other countries affirm legal gender equality, however imperfect the global implementation of that ideal may be.
One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all
Ending his “War on Women” speech, Rocky Anderson says, “All
of us are at risk” and together we must stand. Take sustained action. Make
clear that these abuses will not stand.
“Equality and justice are not just catch phrases,” he says. “Equality
and justice must continue to define what America stands for and what we the
American people will continue to fight for.
It is up to each and all of us together — united in our purpose — to
stand and fight tenaciously for the rights and liberties of all.”
Sources and notes
“War on Women Rally” Remarks of Ross C. (Rocky) Anderson, Utah State Capitol
April 28, 2012,
http://www.voterocky.org/war_on_women_speech?utm_campaign=equality_more&recruiter_id=67772&utm_medium=email&utm_source=voterocky
National Council of Women’s
Organizations, 714 G Street, SE, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20003 202-293-4505,
(fax) 202-293-4507, ncwo@ncwo-online.org, ww.womensorganizations.org
ERA Task Force (Roberta W.
Francis, Chair): era@equalrightsamendment.org, www.equalrightsamendment.org October
2011
http://equalrightsamendment.org/why.htm
http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm
ERA in the States
On February 14, 2012, for the second year in a row, the
Virginia Senate passed a resolution ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment. The Virginia House refused to release the
bill from committee last year, and current Privileges and Elections Chair,
Delegate Mark Cole, called it a political ploy, declared it dead, and said he
will not docket it.
States non-ratified ERA
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia
[Additional information about the ERA's political status can be found on the
website of the ERA Campaign Network, http://equalrightsamendment.org/states.htm]
States ratified ERA
Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut,
Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New
York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee,
Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Writ of Habeas Corpus (more)
The habeas corpus remedy is recognized in the countries of
the Anglo-American legal system but is generally not found in civil-law
countries, although some of the latter have adopted comparable procedures.
In the United States, on occasion habeas corpus relief has
been granted a prisoner who is unlawfully detained after expiration of his
sentence.
Writ of Habeas Corpus in situations not involving criminal
proceedings
Competing claims to the custody of a minor may be
adjudicated in habeas corpus. A person confined to a mental hospital may in
some jurisdictions bring about his release by showing at a habeas corpus
hearing that he has recovered his sanity. Britannica note: habeas corpus. (2011). Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia
Britannica Deluxe Edition. Chicago:
Encyclopedia Britannica.
Image Save Habeas Corpus http://www.basetree.com/photos/the-world-cant-wait.html
Habeas Corpus http://www.salon.com/2007/05/09/habeas_corpus/
Stop Violence Against Women. The Justice Module for UN
Women's Virtual,
theadvocatesforhumanrights.org
Carolyn Maloney Holds News Conference On Equal Rights
Amendment, http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/WH2idnmG0J2/Carolyn+Maloney+Holds+News+Conference+Equal/vgSk6w_Ce6p/Gwen+Moore
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) (4th-L) speaks as Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) (2nd-L), Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) (3rd-L), and President of the Feminist Majority Eleanor Smeal (2nd-R) listen during a news conference January 6, 2011 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Rep. Maloney and Sen. Menendez held a news conference to highlight the absence of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the U.S. Constitution. (January 5, 2011 - Source: Alex Wong/Getty Images North America)
Equal Rights Amendment March [9A2663], Illinois, visualphotos.com
Alice Paul, thenewagenda.net
Woman Suffrage parade 1917, libraryschool.campusguides.com
___________________________
Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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