Why the Equal Rights Amendment Is Again a Hot Topic in New York

The former congressman rocked back and forth, his face turning red as he jabbed his finger in the air. It had been 18 months since Lee Zeldin lost his bid to become governor of New York, and now he was back at a rally in Albany, with a new war to fight.

The enemy was a proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the State Constitution. But instead of attacking the amendment’s signature purpose — safeguarding abortion protections — Mr. Zeldin, a Republican, railed against what he framed as the Democrats’ secret agenda: forcing sports teams to welcome transgender athletes.

“There has been no greater attack on women’s rights and girls’ rights in the State of New York throughout any of our lifetimes than Proposition 1 in November,” he said at the rally in the State Capitol earlier this month.

The amendment, he added, was an “attempt by New York Democrats to deceptively put abortion on the ballot, when in reality it was a full-fledged attack on women’s rights, free speech, girls’ sports, rule of law and much more.”

As Election Day approaches, the fight over the amendment has taken on an outsize role in New York, even in a pivotal election year when the presidency, the House and state legislative races are on the ballot.

Voters were to decide the fate of the amendment in a binding statewide referendum this November, but that is now in flux. Last week, a state judge in western New York declared that Democratic lawmakers had made procedural errors in putting the referendum on the ballot, and ordered it removed. On Tuesday, the Democratic state attorney general, Letitia James, formally appealed the ruling.