Constitution of the United States: Difference between revisions

* The [[Equal Rights Amendment]] (proposed 1972) would have prohibited deprivation of equality of rights ([[discrimination]]) by the federal or state governments on account of sex. A seven-year ratification time limit was initially placed on the amendment, but as the deadline approached, Congress granted a three-year extension. Thirty-five states ratified the proposed amendment prior to the original deadline, three short of the number required for it to be implemented (five of them later voted to rescind their ratification). No further states ratified the amendment within the extended deadline. In 2017, Nevada became the first state to ratify the ERA after the expiration of both deadlines,<ref name="35 years after">{{Cite news| url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/21/520962541/nevada-on-cusp-of-ratifying-equal-rights-amendment-35-years-after-deadline | title=Nevada Ratifies The Equal Rights Amendment ... 35 Years After The Deadline | publisher=NPR | access-date=April 6, 2017 | language=en}}</ref> followed by Illinois in 2018,<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2018-09-12/pdf/CREC-2018-09-12-pt1-PgS6141-3.pdf#page=1|title=Congressional Record—September 12, 2018}}</ref> and Virginia in 2020,<ref>{{cite tweet|user=JCarollFoy|number=1217510690413514753|date=January 15, 2020|title=BREAKING: The House of Delegates just passed HJ1, my resolution to have Virginia be the 38th and final state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.}}</ref><ref>[https://wtop.com/virginia/2020/01/virginia-becomes-38th-state-to-ratify-equal-rights-amendment-but-it-may-be-too-late/ Virginia becomes 38th state to ratify Equal Rights Amendment—but it may be too late], [[WTOP-FM]]</ref> purportedly bringing the number of ratifications to 38. However, experts and advocates have acknowledged legal uncertainty about the consequences of these ratifications, due to the expired deadlines and the five states' purported revocations.{{efn|Three states have ratified the ERA in recent years (Virginia, Illinois and Nevada), purportedly bringing the number of ratifications to 38. In January 2020, after the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] issued an opinion that the deadline for passage of the amendment expired at the time of the original 1979 deadline, the [[State attorney general|attorneys general]] of those three states filed suit in [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.]] challenging that opinion. As reported by [[CNN]], they are asking the court to force the archivist of the United States to "carry out his statutory duty of recognizing the complete and final adoption" of the ERA as the Twenty-eighth Amendment to the Constitution.<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/politics/equal-rights-amendment-virginia-litigation-trnd/index.html| title=Three Democratic attorneys general sue to have Equal Rights Amendment added to Constitution| first=Veronica| last=Stracqualursi |publisher=[[CNN]]| date=January 30, 2020| access-date=January 31, 2020}}</ref>}}