Equal Protection Constitutional Amendment Working Group
Today, most don't know it but the Equal protection clause of the 14th amendment was created to protect the formerly enslaved. It would go on to serve as the foundation of all civil rights laws of the the land. The challenge is that the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) since "14" has existed have almost never interpreted the Equal Protection Clause in a manner that has allowed this nation to live up to our national aspirations of justice for all.
It is because of SCOTUS's development and institutionalization of "color-blind" principled equal protection "basic analysis" doctrine that civil rights laws have become obsolete and ineffective, affirmative action has been completely walked back, policy efforts to address disparate outcomes are being stymied and DEI programs and initiatives are actively being dismantled. There are ongoing unprecedented reversals and/or significant alterations of civil rights protections previously safeguarded by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
We have initiated a Vermont equal protection constitutional amendment. Though we know that it will be decided in the courts, this constitutional amendment could lay the groundwork in creating a state legal approach to equal protection which assists Vermont in its ability to create survivable policies that correct disparate outcomes caused by systemic racism and other forms of oppression. This constitutional amendment could assist Vermont in providing broader civil rights protections in the face of national threats. These protections could even be expanded to some who are currently less protected and prevent harmful classification-based algorithms.
We will continue to train and organize around equal protection over the Summer and into the fall. Next Biennium the constitutional amendment is required to pass the Senate and House again before such tine as it heads to the ballot. Please attend the training and organizing sessions as you see them announced. Equal Protection is the cornerstone of civil rights and justice in the United States. How Vermont responds to equal protection will make the difference in the lives of our children and our children's children.
Note:
We'll meet at the Richard Kemp Center for a planning and organizing meting. This meeting will be hybrid. Here is the link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82212516970?pwd=Rt5039jKa26KIr3YkodM29eaOL1L9b.1
The Equal Protection Working Group will meet on the 4h Thursday of each from 6:00 - 7:30 PM at the Richard Kemp Center. Dates are as follows:
September 26, 2024
October 24, 2024
November 28, 2024
December 26, 2024
Equal Protection
"Yet, the very premise of the cases that foreclose federal remedies constitutes a clear call to state courts to step into the breach. With the federal focus of our double protections weakened, our liberties cannot survive if the states betray the trust the Court has put in them. And if that trust is, for the Court, strong enough to override the risk that some states may not live up to it, how much more strongly should we trust state courts whose manifest purpose is to expand constitutional protections. With federal scrutiny diminished, state courts must respond by increasing their own."
The honorable William J. Brennan Jr,
Associate Justice SCOTUS, 1956-1990