• Source: 2024 New York Proposal 1

New York Proposal 1, called the Amendment to Protect Against Unequal Treatment on the ballot, was a proposed legislatively referred constitutional amendment to the New York Constitution, which was approved by voters on November 5, 2024 and will take effect on January 1, 2025. Also informally known as the Equal Rights Amendment, it includes several rights in the New York State Constitution's Equal Protection Clause with its chief purpose to preserve the right to abortion. It also adds a prohibition of discrimination on attributes such ethnicity, gender identity, disability, or reproductive autonomy. The amendment was approved in consecutive legislating sessions in 2022 and 2023 and was approved by voters in a referendum on November 5, 2024. While the text of the amendment was determined by the legislature, the wording of the ballot proposal about the amendment went through several changes and legal challenges before the Board of Elections' draft was replaced by an Albany County Judge.




Content


The amendment, also known as the Equal Rights Amendment, expands the Constitution of New York's Equal Protection Clause, which is limited to protecting people from denial of rights on the basis of "race, color, creed, or religion". The full text of the proposal is:

Adds anti-discrimination provisions to State Constitution. Covers ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity and pregnancy. Also covers reproductive health care and autonomy.If approved, it will modify section 11 of article 1 of the state constitution this way (removals struck, additions underlined):
§ 11. a. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws of this state or any subdivision thereof. No person shall, because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed or, religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health care and autonomy, be subjected to any discrimination in his or her their civil rights by any other person or by any firm, corporation, or institution, or by the state or any agency or subdivision of the state, pursuant to law.b. Nothing in this section shall invalidate or prevent the adoption of any law, regulation, program, or practice that is designed to prevent or dismantle discrimination on the basis of a characteristic listed in this section, nor shall any characteristic listed in this section be interpreted to interfere with, limit, or deny the civil rights of any person based upon any other characteristic identified in this section.




History


In January 2017, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called for the right to abortion to be enshrined into the New York Constitution. In 2019, Cuomo again called for a conditional amendment to protect abortion rights in the state at an event with Hillary Clinton at Barnard College, after the Democratic Party took back control of the New York State Senate in the 2018 election, and shortly before the passage of the Reproductive Health Act.
To amend the constitution in New York, the state legislature must pass the amendment twice in separate legislative sessions. Only at that point do citizens vote on its approval. On July 1, 2022, shortly after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the New York Senate passed the resolution in favor of the amendment by a vote of 49–14, then the New York Assembly also adopted it by a vote of 98–43. On January 24, 2023, in the following legislative session, the New York Senate again passed it by a vote of 43-20 and the New York Assembly again passed it by a vote of 97–46, therefore allowing the referendum to take place.
On May 7, 2024, Livingston County Supreme Court justice Daniel J. Doyle ruled that the referendum cannot take place, since the New York Attorney General issued an opinion of the proposed amendment after lawmakers voted on it, rather than before. New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated that the referendum will still take place in November 2024. On June 18, 2024, the New York State Appellate Court put the referendum back on the ballot.




= Proposal wording changes

=
In 2023, when the amendment had already been passed, state legislature passed a law to require ballot questions to be written at an eighth-grade reading level. When the bipartisan State Board of Elections (BOE) set out to develop the wording, they could not come to an agreement. Finally, Democrats, who wanted to make sure to meet the deadline, agreed to the wording Republicans proposed, written at a college reading level and omitting the terms "abortion" and "LGBT". Board commissioners admitted at the time that it probably violated the "plain language" law. The attorney general's office proposed a new version, and when the BOE was subsequently sued by voters, they sought to require the board to adopt the attorney general's language.
The attorney general's proposed language was:

Protects against unequal treatment by New York and local governments no matter your sex, age, disability status, ethnicity, or national origin. Protects LGBT and pregnant people. Protects abortion.
When ruling on the case, Albany County Judge David Weinstein simply decided to implement his own version of the proposal, against the wishes of either side's lawyers and bypassing the BOE. Absent an appeal, that is the version which appears on the ballot.




Analysis


New York already has several anti-discrimination laws, and the amendment does not create any new rights. By proposing to add rights to the State Constitution, rather than existing only in laws that can be overturned by legislators, it aims to make those rights more difficult to take away if the balance of power in state government were to change. According to Cornell University constitutional law professor Michael C. Dorf, the amendment would protect the right to abortion in the state of New York by ensuring that prohibiting abortion would be an unconstitutional form of health-care discrimination because they would be "singling out one form of reproductive health care, and not other kinds of health care". While several parties have been critical of the final draft excluding the word "abortion" in its text, other advocates argue doing so helps to preserve rights of woman for all pregnancy outcomes, as well as for in vitro fertilization and contraception.
According to The New York Times, the debate over Proposal 1 "has been rife with misinformation". Regarding gender, the proposal does not affect parental rights or parents' role in their children's health-care decisions, such as gender-affirming care. It also does not affect the law regarding participation in sports; transgender women have been permitted to participate in women's sports in New York since 2019. On the subject of immigration, the proposal does not affect existing immigration laws, and does not change state requirements to vote, contrary to false claims that the proposal would make it easier for undocumented immigrants to vote. Hell Gate NYC said many of the arguments against the proposal were "lies, plain and simple", highlighting a quote by Elise Stefanik which included several of them: "Proposition 1 would give our hard earned NY taxpayer dollars to illegals, fund sex change operations for minors without parental consent, and force schools to allow men and boys in women and girls sports and bathrooms".




Support and opposition


The amendment was supported by a number of Democratic politicians in the state, including Governor Kathy Hochul, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. It was also supported by "left-leaning" organizations such as the NAACP, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and Planned Parenthood. Supporters argued that the amendment would help protect reproductive rights, and would help reduce discrimination in the state. A campaign in support of the amendment, titled "New Yorkers for Equal Rights", was launched in June 2023. While it had ambitious goals for fundraising, it received some criticism for how it managed its money.
The New York Republican State Committee and the New York Catholic Conference opposed the amendment, while Republican state senator George Borrello and state assemblyman Christopher Tague spoke out against it on religious grounds. Former congressman Lee Zeldin campaigned against the bill, calling it an "attack on women's rights and girls' rights". With the majority of New Yorkers in favor of protecting abortion rights, many opponents focused on transgender issues, suggesting that including age among anti-discrimination provisions would give children the same power as parents. The Coalition to Protect Kids, which was primarily funded by an anti-abortion activist, formed to defeat the proposal; the Coalition referred to Proposal 1 as the "Parent Replacement Act". A small number of wealthy donors provided millions to campaigns opposing the proposal. Shortly before Election Day, Richard Uihlein gave $6.5 million to a political action committee (PAC), Vote No on Prop 1, to oppose the amendment. The PAC-funded advertisements falsely claiming the amendment would give undocumented immigrants the right to vote.
The wording of the proposal received criticism from multiple perspectives. An opinion piece in the National Review called the language "vague and all-encompassing", arguing that it provided too much latitude to future progressive litigants. Hell Gate NYC called the language "a bland gruel of obfuscation", blaming Republicans for producing language which fails New York's "plain language" law and subsequently led to the version installed by Judge Weinstein.




Effects


The passage of New York's Proposal 1, also known as the Equal Rights Amendment, will have several significant effects upon its implementation on January 1, 2025:




= Constitutional protections against discrimination

=
The amendment expands the New York State Constitution's Equal Protection Clause to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on:

Ethnicity
National origin
Age
Disability
Sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression
Pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes
Reproductive healthcare and autonomy
This expansion aims to provide a more comprehensive safeguard against discrimination for all New Yorkers.




= Reproductive rights

=
By including protections related to pregnancy outcomes and reproductive healthcare, the amendment enshrines the right to abortion and other reproductive services into the state constitution. This constitutional protection makes it more challenging for future legislatures to enact laws that would restrict access to these services.




= LGBTQ+ protections

=
The explicit inclusion of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in the Equal Protection Clause strengthens legal protections for LGBTQ+ individuals. This change is intended to prevent discrimination in areas such as employment, housing, and public accommodations.




= Legal and social implications

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The amendment's broad language may lead to legal challenges as courts interpret its scope and application. For instance, debates have arisen regarding the participation of transgender individuals in gender-segregated sports and the rights of non-citizens. These issues may require judicial clarification to determine how the amendment applies in specific contexts.
Overall, the implementation of Proposal 1 represents a significant step toward expanding civil rights protections in New York State, with potential implications across various sectors of society.




Results


On November 5, 2024, at 9:00 PM ET, polls in New York closed. On the same night, at 9:31 PM PT, the Associated Press projected, with 61% in favor, the passage of Proposal 1.




Opinion polls






See also


Abortion in New York
2022 Kansas abortion referendum
2022 California Proposition 1
2022 Michigan Proposal 3
2022 Vermont Proposal 5
November 2023 Ohio Issue 1
2024 Arizona Proposition 139
2024 Colorado Amendment 79
2024 Florida Amendment 4
2024 Maryland Question 1
2024 Missouri Amendment 3
2024 Montana Initiative 128
2024 Nebraska Right to Abortion Initiative
2024 Nevada Question 6
2024 South Dakota Amendment G




Notes






References






External links


New York State Board of Elections

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