1.     A “NO” vote on Proposal 4 will send the legislature back to the drawing board to draft a REAL equal rights amendment.

A “NO” vote on Proposal 4 will send the message to the legislature that Vermonters want a REAL equal rights amendment that protects each individual equally. Peter Teachout’s recommended language based upon the 14th Amendment would be an acceptable amendment to Vermont’s Constitution.

a.      Expert witness Peter Teachout, Professor, Vermont Law School, whose field is state and constitutional law, offered the Senate Judiciary Committee broad language based on the 14th Amendment as Vermont’s Equal Rights Amendment in January of 2024. Senate Judiciary did not take up Teachout’s recommended language. See Teachout’s testimony, page 6, here.

b.     Teachout also told the House Judiciary Committee in May 2024 that the closed list of groups in the second sentence of the amendment means, legally, you intend to exclude other groups. He also offered language that would turn the exclusive list into an inclusive list, but House Judiciary did not take up his advice. Listen to Teachout’s testimony beginning @1:55:45, here.

c.      Peter Teachout’s written and spoken testimony:

“If I had a free hand in drafting an equal protection amendment to the Vermont constitution, I would propose adding a provision along the following lines as a free-standing article at the end of Chapter I, a new Article 23: ‘Every person is entitled to be treated with equal respect and dignity under the law, therefore government, acting either alone or in conjunction with private actors, shall not deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law or deny any person the equal protection of the laws. The legislature shall have the power to enforce the provisions of this article with appropriate legislation.’ As you can see, this is not entirely original. Essentially it is a simplified Vermont version of the 14th Amendment Clause.”

-Peter Teachout, Vermont Law School Professor, testimony to Senate Judiciary January 30, 2024

“I would just rather to go to the mat with a constitutional amendment that is clear about who's entitled to the protections and whether all people in Vermont are entitled to the same level of protection or whether some groups are entitled to greater levels than others.” - Peter Teachout, House Judiciary, May 1, 2024

“I think this is so extremely important as a matter of State constitutional law that if I were faced with the choice of passing an amendment that is flawed in some important respects or putting it off until four years from now, I'd probably vote in favor of putting it off” –

-Peter Teachout to House Judiciary Committee on May 1, 2024

“ . . .  it is important to remember we are considering the adoption of a constitutional amendment, a fundamental statement of governance that is supposed to guide us over the long term, so while we are doing it, it is important to try to get it right.” - Peter Teachout, House Judiciary, May 1, 2024

The House Judiciary Committee voted to pass the flawed and ambiguous language of Proposal 4 “Equality of Rights” amendment to place before the voters in November 2026 rather than get the language right due to time constraints in the 2024 legislative session. This is not good governance.