WCPT 820 Interview: Jill Wine-Banks

Edwin is joined by Jill Wine-Banks, legal analyst, former general counsel of the U.S. Army, and author of The Watergate Girl.

She discussed the legal recognition of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which she argued was legally ratified in January 2020 and should be implemented. "This amendment was passed and it was ratified by the final 38th state in January of 2020, so that's now almost five years ago," Wine-Banks told WCPT. "The terms of the amendment said that it would become effective upon ratification two years thereafter. So that was three years ago, and it is time for the implementation. All that it takes is recognition that it's met all the requirements. The impediments to that recognition have been that, originally, Congress set a timeline. That timeline was in a preamble. It was not in what the states voted on, so it should have no legal effect or consequences." 

She criticized the Office of Legal Counsel's memo on the ERA and called for its replacement. "I think what President Biden did [on January 17th, announcing that the ERA was ratified] was, in effect, eliminate the OLC memo and that the archivist [of the United States] has no ability not to publish it." 

Wine-Banks also expressed concerns about the potential impact of Pam Bondi heading the Department of Justice and Pete Hegseth leading the Defense Department, highlighting Bondi's unsuitable temperament and lack of bipartisan cooperation and Hegseth's inexperience and problematic comments on women serving in the military.

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