Feminists in Struggle

AN UPDATE ON ERA LITIGATION – SPECIAL GUEST POST BY WENDY MURPHY

Posted on April 24, 2026 by feministwriter

By Wendy Murphy, J. D., Impact Litigator

Last week we received a ruling in our lawsuit (Equal Means Equal v. Donald Trump) to establish women’s full legal equality by challenging the constitutionality of the Selective Service Act, which forbids women to register for the military draft. It is a very rare example of a law that explicitly treats women and men differently. Most instances where women suffer unequal treatment are in the enforcement of laws, and in the actions and inactions of government officials.

As expected, the judge ruled that we do have standing because the primary plaintiff is a woman who tried to register for the draft, but was rejected solely because of her sex.

Because women have standing, the court had to address the merits. This is vitally important because courts routinely deny women standing as a way of avoiding having to address the issue of women’s inequality. This keeps the problem of women’s inequality invisible, which obviously contributes to the problem of activism. Simply put, most women aren’t even aware that the Constitution has established them as unequal second-class citizens. This helps to maintain women’s subjugation because women will not fight for equality if they don’t know they don’t have it. They will, instead, suffer horrendous injustices, and feel hopeless and upset, but never come to understand that the primary cause of their suffering is the Constitution.

Because standing is so important, we are happy to have prevailed on the standing issue, especially considering that the government spent most of its brief arguing that we lacked standing.

As for the merits, the court ruled that it cannot address the question of whether the Selective Service Act is unconstitutional because the Supreme Court has already ruled – in 1981 – that it is, and only the Supreme Court can reverse itself. This ruling is inconsistent with what a different judge ruled on the exact same issue a few years ago in New Jersey where the court said that the Supreme Court’s decision is not binding precedent because the conditions under which that ruling was decided have changed.

The court also ruled that the ERA is not valid because the deadline expired long before the last state ratified. Again, we were not surprised by this, and to some extent we wanted this to be the ruling because it enables us to appeal.

An appeal is appealing (pardon the pun) because it is an opportunity yet again to show the federal courts that many people support our view that the ERA is valid, and while courts have yet to agree, we will not stop fighting until the Supreme Court decides the issue.

We do intend to appeal, which means the First Circuit Court of Appeals will soon decide the issue.

We will have an amicus brief and welcome all the help we can get.

Meanwhile, we will also be filing similar cases in other jurisdictions. It is important that we file more cases soon because in December 2026, women will no longer be able to achieve standing on the Selective Service Act challenges. This is because Congress quietly inserted into the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act in December 2025, changing the registration process so that men will be registered automatically for the draft when they turn 18. For now, they must fill out a form, but in December the government will do that for them. This will deprive women of standing because they can no longer suffer the “legal injury” of being rejected by the government, and it is not enough of an “injury” to say the law itself harms women by excluding them.

This law change was done solely because of our case, so it’s a good sign that they are paying attention and so worried about women filing lawsuits that they bothered to burden Congress with the task of making the draft registration process automatic even though we haven’t had a draft since 1973 and won’t likely have another one anytime soon.

We take such small victories very seriously –

Sometimes victories don’t look like victories, but in high stakes litigation, anything that teaches us something or helps educate the public is important.

See also Wendy’s article in the Boston Globe: Unequal Draft, Unequal Rights

Tell PBS News Hour to Interview Equal Means Equal

Posted on October 8, 2025 by feminist struggle

PBS News Hour recently aired some segments entitled “On Democracy” wherein they failed to acknowledge the fully-ratified Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment, in addition to other errors and omissions in their reporting. They also interviewed Colleen Shogun, the previous National Archivist, without mentioning her failure to publish the ERA onto the Constitution, as was her duty. Equal Means Equal protested this failure of Shogun and the Biden Administration at the National Archives in January of this year.

The Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights has posted a letter it penned to PBS in this regard, and are calling for supporters of the ERA to write and call PBS to get Wendy Murphy, J.D., Kamala Lopez, CEO, and Arlaine Rockey, Legal Consultant, of Equal Means Equal on the show. If EME gets on the show, it can correct the reporting by PBS News Hour and update their viewers on current cases EME lawyers have filed to validate the ERA in the courts, like Equal Means Equal v. Donald J. Trump.

We urge our members and allies to pressure PBS News Hour to get Equal Means Equal on their show. Women need to unite behind securing Equality and end the second-class handmaiden citizenship to which we are currently subjected. #ERAis28A!!

The Equal Rights Amendment – Final Impact Plan!

Posted on August 29, 2024 by feminist struggle

What is the ERA? The ERA is an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to correct the omission of women. Like all amendments, it required ¾ of the states (38) to ratify it for it to become part of the Constitution. This is the full text:

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.

The ERA was ratified by the 38^th state (Virginia) on January 27, 2020. So why isn’t it in the Constitution? Because first the Trump Administration and then the Biden Administration have unconstitutionally obstructed its being published by the National Archivist, as the Constitution requires.

There are so many reasons why women and girls need the ERA. Let’s review some statistics:

Over 4 women a week were murdered in California in 2020
Over 298.000 rapes of women were reported in the U.S. in the same year
Spousal abuse of women is estimated at 4.8 million every year
Approximately 1 million women are stalked annually in the U.S.
Over 78% of sexual harassment charges were filed by women between 2018-2021
7 in 10 human trafficking victims are women and girls
Over 500,000 cases of female genital mutilation have occurred or are at risk of occurring in the U.S.
Abortion rights and birth control are increasingly under attack, risking women’s health and lives
Women in every state report injustice in their family law cases, especially battered mothers trying to protect their children from abusive fathers who aggressively litigate against them, using family court to stalk, harass, punish, and impoverish their former partners and children
Child marriage is still prevalent in the U.S., 87% of victims of which are girls
Women still earn 82 cents to every dollar men earn
Single women and mothers with children are the two fastest-growing groups of people experiencing homelessness in the United States

All of this is facilitated and amplified by the fact that women do not have equal standing in the U.S. Constitution.

Attorney Wendy Murphy explains more in this video:

Some History:

The ERA was first introduced into Congress in 1923 as the Lucretia Mott Amendment, shortly after women suffragists won the right to vote. It was always Alice Paul’s and the First Wave feminists’ intent to gain equal standing in the U.S. Constitution following gaining the vote. The ERA languished for decades, however, was rewritten in 1943, and finally passed in its present form in 1972. This was due to the efforts of Paul who seized the moment when the Civil Rights Movement for black people gained ground in order to press for the civil rights of women. It then went to the states for ratification and reached 35 states before the imposed deadline of first 7 years, extended to 10 years, expired in 1982. In 1992, when the 27th amendment was passed after over 202 years, efforts began anew to obtain the last 3 states to ratify in order to reach the ¾ requirement.

Because of the tireless efforts of individual women and especially the organization, Equal Means Equal, Nevada ratified in 2017; Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020, reaching the required 38 states. Instead of being published onto the Constitution by the National Archivist as Article V of the Constitution mandates, however, the Trump Administration unconstitutionally interfered with its publication by writing a memo, known as the Bill Barr Memo, to the National Archivist telling him not to publish because the deadline had passed. As Archivist, David Ferriero had recorded the ratifications of Nevada and Illinois, but pursuant to the memo from the Office of Legal Counsel in the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, he did not act to publish and certify the ERA after receiving Virginia’s ratification documents in January 2020.

Then after the 2020 election, the Biden Administration continued obstructing its publication and has fought it in court like the Trump Administration did, despite claiming support for the ERA and women’s rights when campaigning. This is especially outrageous considering the fact that the Dobbs decision overturning Roe would not have been possible had the ERA been in the Constitution.

David Ferriero retired in the spring of 2022, and Colleen Shogan was confirmed as his successor as Archivist; she has stated she would publish the ERA if she were told to do so by President Biden. So that is what we need to pressure him to do! We need as many people as possible participating every day in this campaign between now and the election, as that is when we have some leverage and can get some national attention.

Here is our battle plan to finally get the ERA published:

CALL: White House Comment Line 202-456-1111 open T-Th 11-3 EST 8-12 PDT
TEXT: 310-861-2977 – Harris 302-404-0800 – Biden
EMAIL: whitehouse.gov/contact – request a response!
HOUND ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Twitter accounts: @JoeBiden or @POTUS /@KamalaHarris or @VP – Use Hashtags #ERA #EqualRightsAmendment #ERANow!

Sample posts:

The #EqualRightsAmendment was fully ratified on January 27, 2020 and has been unconstitutionally obstructed by Trump & now by @POTUS and @VP. It is now over 100 years since the #ERA was first introduced into Congress. How long must women wait for equality?! Make the call, @JoeBiden!

Congress and the American Bar Association @ABAesq have both deemed the #EqualRightsAmendment to be fully ratified. Why are you standing in the way of women’s equality? What are you waiting for @POTUS and @VP?! Call the National Archivist and tell her to publish #ERA, @JoeBiden!

Write/call/tweet to senators and congressional representatives in support of HJ Res 82 and SJ Res 39, resolutions to urge the publication of the ERA. Make it clear that you realize that Congress has already done its job in 1972, and it is Joe Biden’s turn to do his by calling the Archivist and instructing her to publish. Let them know they should be pressuring him directly as it is HIS responsibility, not theirs. No bill extending the deadline is needed either (nor is it valid).

ADDITIONAL ACTIONS: