Since the Constitution was ratified in June 1788, nearly 12,000 amendments have been introduced in Congress,REF 33 have been proposed,REF and 27 have been ratified. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. [95], According to research by Jules B. Gerard, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, of the 35 legislatures that passed ratification resolutions, 24 of them explicitly referred to the original 1979 deadline.[96]. The Equal Rights Amendment that was adopted by Congress declares, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Immediately after Congress approved the ERA, states began to ratify the amendment. [119] On March 10, 2020, the Plaintiff States (Virginia, Illinois and Nevada) filed a memorandum in opposition to the five states seeking to intervene. Has your state ratified the ERA? Prop 7 added Section 3a of Article 1 of the Texas Constitution. The state legislators in battleground states followed public opinion in rejecting the ERA.[156]. It remains an unresolved legal question as to whether a state can revoke its ratification of a federal constitutional amendment. State and local courts | It is the duty of the Attorney General to defend and support our Legislature. The Texas ERA passed on Nov. 7, 1972, with 2,156,536 votes in favor, 548,422 votes against. Meanwhile, Congress passed the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act and a federal equal rights amendment, the latter of which was ratified by the Texas legislature in a special session in March 1972. That amounts to a minimum of 100 votes in the House of Representatives and 21 votes in the Senate. The Equal Rights Amendment ( ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Several states crafted and adopted their own equal rights amendments during the 1970s and 1980s, while the ERA was before the states, or afterward. Successful bills included one prohibiting sex-based discrimination in processing loan and credit applications and another disallowing husbands from abandoning and selling homesteads without their wives' consent. 208), by which the 92nd Congress proposed the amendment to the states, was prefaced by the following resolving clause: Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission by the Congress: [emphasis added], As the joint resolution was passed on March 22, 1972, this effectively set March 22, 1979 as the deadline for the amendment to be ratified by the requisite number of states. [161], Many ERA supporters blamed their defeat on special interest forces, especially the insurance industry and conservative organizations, suggesting that they had funded an opposition that subverted the democratic process and the will of the pro-ERA majority. Illinois, which in 1972 helped block the Equal Rights Amendment, has a chance to correct that mistake. [190], The 113th Congress had a record number of women. 31 Aug 2010, modified 9 June 2019, Texas State Historical Association. Res. Because the proposing clause is merely legislative, they argue, the time limit can be changed if Congress exercises its power to adjust, amend, or extend its own legislative action with new legislative action.REF This claim does not, as others do, ignore the distinction between proposed amendments that lack a ratification deadline and those that have one. Three-fourths of the states needed to then agree to ratify it as a constitutional amendment, but it failed by a margin of three. [138], Many African-American women have supported the ERA. Congress has authority to set such a deadline, and its validity does not depend on whether the deadline appears in the resolutions proposing clause or the amendments text. First, ERA advocates falsely assert that Congress promulgated the Madison Amendment after assessing whether the amendment had lost its vitality through lapse of time.REF Michigan became the 38th state to ratify the Madison Amendment on May 7, 1992.REF On May 18, 1992, pursuant to statute,REF the Archivist certified that the Madison Amendment has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitution of the United States.REF, Thereafter, the House and Senate passed resolutions recognizing the Amendment.REF House Concurrent Resolution 320, for example, declared that the Madison Amendment has been ratified by a sufficient number of the States and has become a part of the Constitution.REF Two Senate resolutionsREF declared that the Madison Amendment has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitution. On their face, these resolutions recognize or memorialize what had already occurred. After 1973, the number of ratifying states slowed to a trickle. "We're proud that two years ago today Virginia became the 38 th and final state needed to ratify the ERA, meeting the requirement to enshrine equal rights in our Constitution," said the Senators. The House voted to remove those amendments and approved the ERA by a vote of 35224 on October 12, 1972.REF The Senate Judiciary Committee reported the unamended language on March 14, 1972, and the full Senate approved it by a vote of 848 on March 22, 1972. Illinois should ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. As the Congressional Research Service has concluded, the 1972 ERA formally died when its ratification deadline passed on June 30, 1982. Most of these provisions mirror the broad language of the ERA, while the wording in others resembles the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See, "Equal Means Equal v. Ferriero, United States Court of Appeals, for the First Circuit, Case #20-1802, June 29, 2021, National American Woman Suffrage Association, President's Commission on the Status of Women, Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens, United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, "English: A newspaper article from 1923 talking about the ERA", "English: Newspaper article from 1921 talking about the ERA", "English: Newspaper article from 1922 talking about the ERA", "Phyllis Schlafly's "Positive" Freedom: Liberty, Liberation, and the Equal Rights Amendment", "New Drive Afoot to Pass Equal Rights Amendment", "Unbelievably, women still don't have equal rights in the Constitution", "Will the #MeToo movement lead to the Equal Rights Amendment? Between 1972 and 1982, ERA supporters held rallies, petitioned, picketed, went on hunger strikes, and performed acts of civil disobedience. [202] The bill expired without Senate action. Download the official NPS app before your next visit, Sources used to make these state pages include: Ida Husted Harper's. [153] The most prominent opponent of the ERA was Schlafly. | Judie Gammage, Quest for Equality: An Historical Overview of Women's Rights Activism in Texas, 18901975 (Ph.D. dissertation, North Texas State University, 1982). Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) championed it in the Senate from the 99th Congress through the 110th Congress. After. On December 23, 1981, a federal district court, in the case of Idaho v. Freeman, ruled that the extension of the ERA ratification deadline to June 30, 1982 was not valid, and that ERA had actually expired from state legislative consideration more than two years earlier on the original expiration date of March 22, 1979. '"[131][132], In the early 1940s, both the Democratic and Republican parties added support for the ERA to their platforms. "[106] The OLC argued in part that Congress had the authority to impose a deadline for the ERA and that it did not have the authority to retroactively extend the deadline once it had expired. "[159] Historian Judith Glazer-Raymo asserted: As moderates, we thought we represented the forces of reason and goodwill but failed to take seriously the power of the family values argument and the single-mindedness of Schlafly and her followers. The assertion that the 1972 ERA can still be ratified today is based on four errors. They create a baseless distinction between ratification deadlines that appear in an amendments text and in a joint resolutions proposing clause. 10), Kentucky (March 17, 1978: House [Joint] Resolution No. [178], Illinois state lawmakers ratified the ERA on May 30, 2018, with a 7245 vote in the Illinois House following a 4312 vote in the Illinois Senate in April 2018. The House made the shift in 1960, when the House Judiciary Committee reported what would become the 23rd Amendment with the ratification deadline in the joint resolutions proposing clause. Finally, Congress proposed the 1972 ERA with a seven-year ratification deadline in the joint resolutions proposing clause. [181][182][183] In 2019, a Senate committee voted to advance the ERA to the floor. [48] In 1970, congressional hearings began on the ERA. All rights reserved. On January 6, 2020, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel official Steven Engel issued an opinion in response to the lawsuit by Alabama, Louisiana, and South Dakota, stating that "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. They also feared that the ERA would undercut the male-dominated labor unions that were a core component of the New Deal coalition. Please contact your state legislators and urge them to support the Equal Rights Amendment, and bring it to the floor for a vote. The 1972 ERA, therefore, can no longer be ratified because it no longer exists. The measure provided that equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed or national origin. To fight this recall effort, Texans for the ERA was formed and hired a full-time lobbyist, Norma Cude, to prevent the passage of the recall legislation. When that deadline passes without ratification by three-fourths of the states, the proposed amendment expires and is no longer pending. State legislature | Thomas Jipping is Deputy Director and Senior Legal Fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, of the Institute for Constitutional Government, at The Heritage Foundation. States were given seven years to ratify, then the deadline was extended to 1982. Those 24 words, written by Alice Paul in 1922, have provoked a nearly century long debate in the U.S. Congress. The bill cleared the Legislature, and Texas voters approved the state ERA in a constitutional amendment election in November 1972. 9), Tennessee (April 23, 1974: Senate Joint Resolution No. [18] The proposal was seconded by Dr. Frances Dickinson, a cousin of Susan B. In 1959, they had it introduced in the Texas Senate and House as the Texas Equal Legal Rights Amendment. Ballot measures, Who represents me? It is designated as a National Historic Landmark. The Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress on March 22, 1972 and sent to the states for ratification. In 1982, seven female ERA supporters, known as the Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens, went on a fast and seventeen chained themselves to the entrance of the Illinois Senate chamber. Steinem blamed the insurance industry and said Schlafly "did not change one vote. Nonetheless, when the 1972 ERAs deadline passed without ratification by three-fourths of the states, the proposed amendment expired and is no longer pending. The joint resolution proposing the 1972 ERA, for example, opens this way: Resolvedthat the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be validwhen ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission by the Congress. Similarly, Section 3 of the 18th Amendment requires that it be ratifiedby the legislatures of the several Stateswithin seven years from date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress., When Congress does not impose a ratification deadline, the designation always appears in the joint resolutions proposing clause. In Illinois, the House but not the Senate passed an ERA ratification bill in 2003, while the Senate but not the House did so in 2014. This means there are fifty-two senators who back the resolution, however, no vote on the resolution has taken place by the committee or by the full Senate.[206]. Hurry, Early Registration for the 2023 Annual Meeting in El Paso ends soon. Representative Griffiths introduced House Joint Resolution 208 when the 92nd Congress convened and, this time, Judiciary Committee Chairman Celler did not block its consideration. Joint resolutions have the force of law and, in most cases, must be presented to the President for his signature. Five state legislatures (Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee, and South Dakota) voted to revoke their ERA ratifications. 638, by Representative Elizabeth Holtzman of New York (House: August; Senate: October 6; signing of the President: October 20), which purported to extend the ERA's ratification deadline to June 30, 1982. "[116] An en banc rehearing request was denied on January 4, 2022. We'll send you a couple of emails per month, filled with fascinating history facts that you can share with your friends. There was no doubt when Congress proposed the ERA in 1972 that its ratification deadline, placed in the resolutions proposing clause, was binding.REF The fact that Congress not only imposed the deadline, but acted to extend it before that deadline passed, shows that Congress considered it valid. The resolution was referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where a vote on it was never brought. 2023 www.statesman.com. "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." The E.R.A. It is unclear why ERA advocates advance this argument at all because it is entirely irrelevant to the current strategy for ratifying the 1972 ERA. National Archives, General Records of the United States Government. Proposed amendment to the United States Constitution ensuring equal rights regardless of sex, Hayden rider and protective labor legislation, Non-ratifying states with one-house approval, Congressional extension of ratification deadline, Massachusetts lawsuit supporting ratification, 2020 U.S. District Court lawsuit supporting ratification, Post-deadline ratifications and the "three-state strategy", Proposed removal of ratification deadline, Article Five of the United States Constitution requires approval of three-fourths of the, The Texas Observer, March 11, 1977, "Sniping at the ERA," p. 5-6/. Legislation could be introduced and amended at any time during this period. In 2014, under the auspices of ERA Action and their coalition partners, both the Virginia and Illinois state senates voted to ratify the ERA. A majority of states ratified the proposed constitutional amendment within a year. 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