HomeMy WebLinkAboutRES-2016-070 Resolution in Support of the Equal Rights Amendment -PgF
RES-2016-070 4Q'.
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT
WHEREAS, Orange County forthrightly supports equal rights for all residents of Orange County; and
WHEREAS, women continue to confront a lack of political parity, workplace discrimination, health care
inequities, disparate rates of poverty, rape and domestic violence assaults; and
WHEREAS, the United States Constitution fails to guarantee explicitly that all rights that it purports to
protect are held equally by all residents without regard to sex; and
WHEREAS, the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment never has been interpreted to
guarantee equal rights for women; and
WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment [ERA] was drafted to help correct systemic discrimination
based on sex, i.e., by situating sex as a suspect category invoking strict judicial scrutiny, as with race,
national origin and religion; and
WHEREAS, the ERA was passed by Congress in 1972 and ratified by 35 of the 38 states necessary to
put it into the Constitution, yet was assumed to have expired in 1982; and
WHEREAS, Congress can alter time limits in the proposing clauses of amendments, and the deadline
for the ERA appeared only in the preamble as opposed to the actual legislation; and
WHEREAS, Senator Floyd B. McKissick, Jr. and Representative Carla Cunningham introduced ERA
ratification bills in the NC General Assembly in the 2015 long session, with Senator Mike Woodard co-
sponsoring the Senate bill and Representative Henry M. Michaux co-sponsoring the House bill; and
WHEREAS, these legislators have indicated that they will introduce similar bills in 2017; and
WHEREAS, US Representative David Price, Representative Alma Adams, and Representative G.K.
Butterfield co-sponsored bills in the 114th Congress to adopt an ERA, and to lift the time limits on states
for ratifying the ERA;
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Orange County Board of County Commissioners
calls on the US Congress to pass into law a bill to adopt an Equal Rights Amendment, or to remove
the time limit for ratification of the ERA so that ratification shall be achieved upon the affirmative vote of
38 states, of which 35 already have ratified; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Orange County Board of County Commissioners calls on the
NC General Assembly to pass into law a bill to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States
Constitution as proposed by Congress on March 22, 1972.
This the 15th day of November 2016.
44 "
Earl McKee, Chair
Orange County Board of Commissioners