A federal appeals court in Boston won’t rehear the appeal of Equal Rights Amendment supporters arguing the proposed addition to the U.S. Constitution has been ratified, leaving in place a lower court decision to dismiss their lawsuit for lack of standing and setting it up for a possible Supreme Court review.
The plaintiffs, led by advocacy group Equal Means Equal, are seeking a court order to force U.S. Archivist David Ferriero to publish the would-be 28th Amendment to the Constitution, sent to the states by Congress in 1972.
Ferriero has refused to publish it, relying on a Justice Department legal memo saying the 1979 deadline that Congress had set for states to ratify the ERA is valid and legally binding. The final three states to ratify it—Illinois, Nevada, and Virginia—took ratification votes four decades after the deadline, with Virginia legislators granting their approval in January 2020.
The Boston plaintiffs had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to rehear their appeal with its full slate of judges, after a three-judge panel of the court ruled against them last June. The appellate court denied that en banc rehearing request in a single-paragraph ruling Tuesday.
A similar case is pending at the District of Columbia Circuit, where the state attorneys general of Illinois, Nevada, and Virginia are seeking court recognition of the amendment’s ratification. The states...
; ; ; agreed to pay $17.07 million to settle federal allegations of illegal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices on Friday, marking the Justice Department's first resolution unde...