Throughout the fight that led to the Dobbs decision, EQUAL MEANS EQUAL and others picked up on a worrying trend; people were losing cases because their best defense, the now fully ratified Equal Rights Amendment, was being left on the table. Why?

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Equal Means Equal has been dedicated to doing whatever it takes to realizing the century old dream of Constitutional equality since despite two bills in Congress, nearly 232 years of precedent, one of the largest caucuses in Congress, and overwhelming public support, the Equal Rights Amendment remains unpublished despite Virginia's ratification being certified 1,380 days ago and counting.

"We need in every bay and community a group of angelic troublemakers."-Bayard Rustin

Equal Means Equal released the following information today, draw your own conclusions:

Throughout the fight that led to the Dobbs decision, EQUAL MEANS EQUAL and others picked up on a worrying trend; people were losing cases because their best defense, the now fully ratified Equal Rights Amendment, was being left on the table.

One of the Equal Means Equal lawyers, Arlaine Rockey, who, along with Gina Collias and Pamela Parker wrote amici curiae briefs in all three courts in our case against the US Archivist for failing to publish the ERA, realized that the legal team representing the women in the Dobbs lawsuit were not using the Federal ERA to save their reproductive rights and made Herculean efforts to have them do so.

Timeline:

• Jan 27th 2020 Virginia becomes final state needed to ratify the ERA
  
  
• December 1 2021 Jackson Women's Health Organization present oral arguments in the Dobbs case by their attorney, Julie Rikelman, Senior Director of Litigation for the Center for Reproductive Rights and the US Solicitor General, Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the US Government,
  
  
• December 6th 2021, Attorney Arlaine Rockey contacts Julie Rikelman, by telephone, fax and email urging her to use ERA, which was set to become legally-effective on Jan 17 2022 (per ERA Section 3) in her arguments.
  
  
• THEY DO NOT RESPOND
  
  
• Jan 27th 2022 ERA becomes fully enforceable Federal law
  
  
• On May 2nd 2022 the proposed majority opinion by Justice Samuel Alito is leaked and released to the public in which he writes that Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113 (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U. S. 833 (1992) were overruled because, "... no such right to abortion is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision...."
  
  
• On May 3rd 2022, Attorney Rockey again contacts lawyer Julie Rikelman and her co-counsel Hillary Schneller, urgently requesting that they use ERA to protect women's rights.
  
  
• THEY DO NOT RESPOND
  
  
• On May 16th of 2022 Attorney Rockey and attorney Gina Collias file an Amended Motion for Leave to File an Amicus Brief in Support of Respondents on behalf of ERA-NC Alliance asserting that the Federal ERA provided the textual basis, and implicitly a fundamental right to abortion, that Justice Alito claimed was absent in the Constitution. Jackson Women's Health Organization'a attorneys Julie Rikelman and her co-counsel Hillary Schneller, opposing counsel & the Solicitor General of the United States, Elizabeth Prelogar, are all served with the motion.
  
• 
  
• THEY DO NOT RESPOND
  
  
• On June 1st, 2022 Attorney Rockey again contacts the US Solicitor General, Elizabeth Prelogar, with the motion and a request for President Biden to immediately publish ERA by Executive Order to the U.S. Archivist.
  
  
• THEY DO NOT RESPOND
  
  
• On June 17th 2022 Attorney Rockey contacts Mr. Stuart F. Delery, White House Counsel, urging President Biden to use an Executive Order (a draft of one was enclosed) to publish ERA as a means to to put SCOTUS and the nation on public notice that the ERA was now published in the Constitution, and the attorneys in the Dobbs case could no longer ignore it.
  
  
• THEY DO NOT RESPOND
  
• 
  
• On June 22nd, 2022 Attorney Rockey contacts all of the attorneys at the Center for Reproductive Rights in their New York and Washington DC offices, including Julie Rikelman again.
  
• 
  
• THEY DO NOT RESPOND
  
  
• June 24th 2022 the Dobbs Decision is handed down.
  
  
• On July 7th Attorney Rockey again contacts the Center for Reproductive Rights, this time focusing on the President/CEO directly, Nancy Northup, and copying the all of Jackson Women's Health Organization's attorneys, asking them to request a re-hearing to submit ERA.
  
  
• THEY DO NOT RESPOND
  
  
• On Aug 1 2022, attorney Julie Rikelman is appointed Judge to the Federal US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit by President Biden. She is confirmed on June 20, 2023.

Authors Website: http://www.OceanViewArts.com

Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark.

Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE

A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8

She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR.

Her artwork is in collections across the globe.

Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May.

OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html

Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html

On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-Pussy-Hats-170212-681.html

"Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html

Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul

Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html
Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.