US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer formally announces retirement

A participant in the Women’s March event Jan. 18, 2020, in San Francisco holds a “Pass the Equal Rights Amendment” sign while marching. / Credit: Sundry Photography/Shutterstock

Washington D.C., Apr 28, 2023 / 15:40 pm (CNA).

Catholic bishops praised senators who stood their ground Thursday to prevent efforts to enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution. 

Senate Republicans effectively blocked a resolution that would have eliminated the already-expired 1982 deadline for states to ratify the ERA. The Constitution requires that three-quarters of the states, or 38 states, ratify amendments for them to go into effect. 

The resolution received majority support in the Senate with a 51-47 vote, but 60 votes are needed for cloture to end debate and bring the resolution to a floor vote. After failing to reach the 60-vote threshold, the motion was defeated. 

The ERA would amend the U.S. Constitution to declare that equality of rights under the law cannot be denied on account of sex. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and other opponents voiced concerns that the language could be used to claim a constitutional right to an abortion or could be used to infringe on religious liberty. 

“The Catholic faith teaches that women and men are created with equal dignity, and we support that being reflected in law,” Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said in a statement. 

“The proposed ‘Equal Rights Amendment,’ however, would likely create a sweeping new nationwide right to abortion at any stage, at taxpayer expense, and eliminate even modest protections for women’s health and the lives of preborn children,” Burbidge added. “It could also pose grave problems for women’s privacy and athletic and other opportunities, and negatively impact religious freedom. I am grateful that the Senate did not advance this proposal that in fact expired decades ago, and I hope that Congress will focus on meaningful support for women and families in need.”

Senate Democrats held a press conference following the vote, in which they criticized Republicans for voting against cloture. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, suggested the amendment would affect the Supreme Court’s recent rulings related to abortion. 

“It is 2023,” Schumer said. “Women are under assault, politically, in so many ways, whether it’s the right to choose or women’s health care or discrimination or so many other things. It’s about time America said no to all of that. It’s about time America said no to the MAGA majority on the Supreme Court, that we need protections for women.”

Only two Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted in favor of the resolution.

The battle over the ERA goes back a century, as it was originally introduced into Congress in December 1923. Congress approved the amendment in 1972, but the next step required at least 38 states to ratify it. The deadline imposed by Congress for ratification was 1979, but only 35 states had ratified it before that date. Congress extended the deadline to 1982, but no additional states ratified the proposed amendment. Although there were questions about the legality of the extension, which was approved in 1978, the matter was never resolved in the courts because not enough states had ratified it anyway. 

When former President Donald Trump took office, Democratic lawmakers revived the effort to ratify the amendment. Three states — Nevada in 2017, Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020 — voted to ratify the amendment even though the deadline had passed about 40 years earlier. 

Although this means 38 states have ratified the amendment, six of those states have rescinded their ratifications. Five states rescinded their ratifications in the 1970s and one other state, North Dakota, did so in 2021. 

The resolution before Congress would have eliminated the 1982 deadline. However, there are still unresolved legal questions concerning whether Congress would have the ability to extend or end the deadline after it expired. There are also legal questions about whether states can legally rescind their ratifications. If the ERA deadline were to be removed, it would likely open up a series of lawsuits that would need to be resolved in the Supreme Court. 

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Pope Francis at his general audience on May 17, 2023 (left) and a painting of St. Francis Xavier in the Church of the Gesù in Rome (right). / Daniel Ibanez/Creative Commons

Vatican City, May 17, 2023 / 04:35 am (CNA).
In a world in which there … […]

Denver Newsroom, May 19, 2020 / 04:49 pm (CNA).- In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic hitting the United States in mid-March, thousands of Americans were either furloughed or laid off from their jobs as non-essential businesses shuttered or restricted their operations in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.

One of the harder-hit areas of the country has been Acadiana, Louisiana, a region in the southern third of the state that got its name from the Acadian population of the area, also known as Cajun or Creole Louisianans, who have French roots in the area of Acadia.

According to a 2019 report from Louisiana Association of United Ways, nearly half of Acadian Louisianans live paycheck to paycheck. For people in this situation, every pay period can mean the difference between having a place to live and being homeless.

That’s why Catholic Charities in Acadiana, Louisiana is appealing to the local mayor for additional funding from a federal grant to help shore up housing, after seeing a 58% spike in people experiencing homelessness in the region since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

This week, Catholic Charities wrote a letter to the Lafayette Consolidated Government, as well as the Lafayette City and Parish council members, appealing to them for aid from a federal grant given to the local government from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory has said he plans to use the $852,935 grant to help small businesses in the area who have suffered from the widespread shutdowns.

But Ben Broussard, the chief communications officer for Catholic Charities of Acadiana, said he hoped the funding could be used to help the rapidly increasing number of homeless people in the area.

“We have seen the rise in that instability; the calls to our services have gone up drastically,” Broussard told CNA.

The nearly 60% spike in homelessness in Acadiana is high, even compared to what is anticipated across the rest of the nation due to the pandemic. According to an analysis by a Columbia University economist, reported in the Los Angeles Times, the United States expects could see up to a 45% increase in homelessness due to fallout from the coronavirus.

Even before the virus hit Acadiana, Broussard said, “roughly 30% to 35% of folks are experiencing that level of poverty where they’re one missed paycheck away from (homelessness).”

“That’s just during normal times. And we have a very heavy retail and service economy in southern Louisiana, and those are some of the parts of the economy that have been hardest hit,” he said.

“So our concern has always been with housing stability and with food access. It doesn’t matter who you are…if you’re having to choose between putting food on the table or paying your bills, that’s a hard choice to make for a family or for an individual who’s reeling from not having the work that they had before,” he said.

Louisiana has been one of the harder-hit states when it comes to coronavirus, with 34,709 total cases and 2,440 deaths so far, according to reporting by the New York Times. Acadiana was one of the hotspots for the virus, Broussard added, and increasing the homeless population in the area could contribute to its spread.

“It is a rule of thumb that those who are chronically homeless…the longer you spend on the street, the harder it is on the human body. It ages you. It is taxing. And so we have always seen those that we serve who are experiencing homelessnes are part of a vulnerable clientele. They are those who were most susceptible to getting sick and suffering due to any virus, flu outbreaks, all those things,” he said.

Broussard said that while he wanted to make it clear that Catholic Charities wants to work with Mayor Guillory, he also wanted to make it clear that money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development should first go toward housing, and that there was other money available for relief for small businesses, for example from the Small Business Association.

“As an organization that responds (to emergency needs), our desire is to see those funds be used for what they were intended to be used for, which is shoring up housing stability in the wake of a crisis,” Broussard said.

“There is money available for businesses through the Small Business Association, SBA. But we can’t access SBA money to fund shelters and to provide for people who are in crisis,” he added.

Besides social distancing making some processes of Catholic Charities more difficult – like serving soup kitchen meals or spreading out people staying in shelters – it has also meant that Catholic Charities has had to forgo all in-kind donations such as donated food or clothing, in order to prevent bringing the virus into its facilities.

“That’s tens of thousands of dollars worth of donations that people bring us every year” that Catholic Charities in Acadiana is currently having to forgo, Broussard said. “And so that added to the economic hardship on the organization.”

According to local ABC affiliate KATC 3, the Lafayette City and Parish Councils were holding an emergency joint meeting to discuss increasing grant revenues on Tuesday.

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