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NEWS FEBRUARY 24, 2020 ¦ 11

RBG’s Remarks on Equal Rights Amendment
Are Used Against Advocates in Court

By Marcia Coyle

The litigation boutique Conso-
voy McCarthy, representing
several Republican-led states
hoping to derail the revival of the
Equal Rights Amendment, filed
court papers Wednesday that rely
in part on an unlikely voice: Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The firm, which has been a lead-
ing advocate for President Donald
Trump in court and has become
more broadly a go-to firm for con-
servative legal causes, pointed to
Ginsburg’s comments that the rati-
fication effort needed to “start over
again.”
Consovoy McCarthy lawyers
appeared on the court filing with
state attorneys general from Ala-
bama, Louisiana, Nebraska, South
Dakota and Tennessee. The five
states moved to intervene in a suit Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently commented that the Equal Rights
filed in Washington’s federal trial Amendment ratification effort needed to

court by Virginia, Illinois and Nevada against Da- in their lawsuit that the ratification threshold—38
vid Ferriero, archivist of the United States and the states—has been met. The archivist in a January
gatekeeper for adding amendments to the U.S. statement said his office will abide by a U.S. Justice
Constitution. Department legal counsel opinion, that the deadline
The three states, the latest to ratify the ERA, con- for ratification has expired.
tend in their lawsuit that it must now be added to The Consovoy McCarthy team, including part-
the U.S. Constitution. But not so fast, according ner Patrick Strawbridge, a former clerk to Justice
to the lawyers for Alabama, Louisiana, Nebraska, Clarence Thomas, along with state attorneys general
South Dakota and Tennessee. of Alabama, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Dakota and
“As Justice Ginsburg put it, the ERA cannot be Tennessee, contend the district court should allow
ratified unless it’s ‘put back in the political hopper’ them to intervene as defendants because the lawsuit
and its proponents ‘start over again, collecting the “would force the Archivist to wrongly count them
necessary number of states,’” the Republican states’ among the ratifying states and to illegally convert
court filing said. their rescinded ratification papers into live legal
Virginia, Illinois and Nevada ratified the ERA documents.”
in 2020, 2018 and 2017, respectively. They argue
¦ Continued on PAGE 12

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