53 years later, ERA not in Constitution
Amendment ran out of time to be ratified
By: Phaedra Trethan
USA Today
..... More than half a century ago this month, the U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA, sending the measure to the states for ratification in order for it to become a part of the U.S. constitution, the ultimate law of the land.
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Thus far 38 states have ratified the amendment, which meets the Constitutional threshold of three-quarters of the states required for it to be enshrined in the Constitution.
..... While most people might think of the Equal Rights Amendment as a relic of second-wave feminism - when Shirley Chisholm made a run for president, Gloria Stenem and Dorothy Pitman Hughers raised there fists in solidarity, and when women were rejecting traditional gender roles en masses - President Joe Biden on one of his last days in office, called the Equal Rights Amendment "the law of the land."
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So why isn't the Equal Rights Amendment included in published versions of the Constitution as our 28th Amendment? Like most matters involving sex and gender, it's complicated.
..... Some opponents say the rights enshrined by the ERA are redundant to other existing amendments, according to policyPerspectives.org.
..... That includes the 14th Amendment, which states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without protection of the laws."
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Another argument against ERA is that it could potentially backfire in its intention to protect women's rights by ensuring hat no laws can be written to specifically protect women.
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some worry, according to Policy Perspectives, that the law could be exploited to further marginalize an entire population in the same way the 14th Amendment was sued to argue in favor of the "separate but equal" decision in Plessy v. Ferguson.
..... Other arguments against the ERA include the potential for women to be including in a military draft; the end of protections for abortion rights; and the creation of public facilities, such as restrooms and locker rooms that are not based on gender, according to the League of Woman Voters.
..... The states that have not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment are Arizona, Utah, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.
..... Washington and Hawaii both ratified the amendment on March 22, 1972, immediately after Congress sent it to the states.
..... New Hampshire and Delaware followed, ratifying on March 23, 1972. Idaho, Iowa (both on March 24, 1972); Kansas (March 28, 1972); Nebraska (March 29, 1972) and Texas (March 30, 1972) all ratified within days of receiving the amendment.
..... Twenty-six states followed over the following months and years within the original 1979 deadline. But by 1982, the measure had stalled at 35 states ratifying.
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Most recently, Nevada ratified the ERA on March 21, 2017. Illinois chimed in on may 30, 2018, Virgina was the 38th and deciding state to ratify, on January 27, 2020.
..... the original ERA, first proposed as the Lucretia Mott Amendment in 1923, read as follows; "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
..... In 1943, the wording was changed and the article renamed the Alice Paul Amendment. It reads:
..... Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
..... Section 2: Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provision of this article.
..... Section 3: this amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
..... Paul was a New Jersey native, Quaker and women's suffrage and rights activist.
..... "The people have spoken," said Molly Gonzales, whose work with the in New Jersey-based Alice Paul Center involves not only advocacy but also education about the ERA, the center's namesake and the long and still-ongoing struggle for women's rights.
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The center's position echoes Biden's that the ERA is the law of the land - a measure that has been passed into law, but not implemented or published in the U.S. constitution.
..... But that is not the position of the federal government.
..... A 2020 memo from the Department of Justice's Office of Legal counsel said that "the ERA thus failed to secure the necessary ratifications within either of Congress's deadlines."
..... "We conclude that Congress had the constitutional authority to impose a deadline on the ratification of the ERA and, because that deadline has expired, the ERA Resolution is no longer pending before the States," the memo added.
..... In November 2024, the National Archives issued a statement saying it would not add the ERA to the Constitution, citing both the 2020 Office of Legal Counsel and a subsequent memo in 2022.
..... "At the time, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) cannot be certified as part of the Constitution due to established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions,: the National Archives wrote.
..... Gonzales said the work to have the ERA fully recognized and implemented is ongoing. She sand the Alice Paul Center continue to educate people about the ERA and its roots, how it once had full bipartisan support, how it is the only amendment in 236 years to have a time limit and how people can get involved on the grassroots level to see it become federal law.
..... And several states aren't waiting for the federal government.
..... States that have their own Equal Rights Amendments in their state constitution including California, Washington, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Florida, Massachusetts, Virginia and Delaware.