ERA Rises from the Dead?

Nov 11, 2019

Now that Democrats became the majority in Virginia’s state legislature, some are talking about resurrecting and actually passing the Equal Rights Amendment.

The ERA simply states, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” It was originally proposed nearly 100 years ago, in 1923, but it took massive movements in the ‘60s before Congress finally got around to passing it in 1972. But then it set a time limit for the states to adopt it, something not done for other amendments. That time limit expired in 1982, with the amendment short of the 38 states needed to be ratified into the Constitution.

Now there’s talk by Democrats in the House about removing that time limit and allowing Virginia to be the 38^th state to ratify the ERA. But of course, that would require Republicans in the Senate to vote to remove that time limit, too. So, chances are good that nothing will come of this proposal but making it another election year talking point by the Democrats.

And who knows what will happen if Democrats win a majority in the Senate in 2020? Democrats in Congress have been in a position to get rid of that time limit many times before, but never got around to doing it when it could actually be done.

Gee, guys, don’t rush into anything here! It’s already taken a hundred years! If this is the pace of progress we can expect from Congress, no wonder so many people are fed up!