Prop One debate split on party lines

ALBANY — Dutchess County voters will have one statewide measure on the back of their ballots on Election Day: an amendment to the state constitution listed as “Prop. One” and commonly known as the equal rights amendment.

Prop One amends the anti-discrimination section of the state constitution, codifying protections for “ethnicity, national origin, age, disability ... or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”

New York Democrats have widely touted the measure as a key protection for abortion, while Republicans have slammed the measure, calling it a trojan horse that does little to specifically address abortion rights in the state.

Albany Law assistant professor Dale Cecka has spent her professional career in family law with an academic focus on the constitutional rights of parents. She said the New York GOP’s claims that the amendment would allow non-citizens to vote in the state and strip parent’s rights are false and have no basis in the text of the amendment.

“It’s largely symbolic,” Cecka said. “It doesn’t create any new rights.” She explained that the text of this amendment creates some useful redundancy and clear direction for state courts, but doesn’t expand on existing anti-discriminatory statutes like the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which already federally prohibits discrimination based on ethnicity and national origin.

She also said that, in New York, existing abortion protections and protections against sex- and gender-based discrimination already secure the right to an abortion in the state. This amendment to the state constitution simply adds one more layer of legal protection to prevent the government from future action that may infringe on those rights.

Prop. One will appear on the back of Dutchess County ballots. Voters can read the full text of the proposition online at elections.ny.gov/2024-statewide-ballot-proposal.

Latest News

Route 199 closed between Chase Road and Shultz Road in Pine Plains

A sign alerting drivers to the Route 199 closure on the side of Route 22 just north of the Smithfield Road intersection in the town of North East. Route 199 will be closed until Aug. 31.

Photo by Nathan Miller

PINE PLAINS — Route 199 will be closed between Chase Road and Shultz Road in the town of Pine Plains starting Monday, June 23.

State Department of Transportation crews are replacing a culvert under Route 199 east of the intersection with Shultz Road. Construction is scheduled to end Aug. 31.

Keep ReadingShow less
Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less