Upstate Republican Assemblywoman Majorie Byrnes plays key role
By Chris Bragg and Rachel Holliday Smith at NYFocus.com, pictured is Byrnes
NEW YORK’S EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT, which would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state, has been ordered off the November ballot, after a judge ruled that lawmakers didn’t follow the appropriate procedure in passing it.
Two years ago, the state’s Democratic Party moved fast to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which allowed states to curtail abortion rights. That speed ultimately may have doomed its efforts.
Governor Kathy Hochul called an extraordinary session of the legislature, and a week after the Supreme Court ruling, state lawmakers passed the proposed constitutional amendment on July 1, 2022.
The amendment would enshrine not only the right to an abortion, but also protections against discrimination related to gender or gender identity. It is also a key part of Democrats’ strategy to win back Congress. The party hoped to use the hot-button issues to drive turnout among pro-choice voters this year and pick up several seats lost to Republicans in 2022.
After it passed the legislature a second time last year, as required, the measure was set to go before New York voters in November — and was expected to pass and be enshrined into the state constitution.
But in the rush, Democrats got caught in a procedural misstep in the lawsuit, originally filed in Livingston County Supreme Court.
“More than a dozen constitutional amendments have proceeded in this exact manner in the last 50 years — and all made it on the ballot.”
—ANDREW TAVERRITE, NEW YORKERS FOR EQUAL RIGHTS
On Tuesday, county Supreme Court Justice Daniel J. Doyle sided with plaintiff Assemblymember Marjorie Byrnes, a Republican from western New York, declaring the amendment “null and void” and ordering its removal from the ballot.
Read the whole story here at NYFocus.com
