States Reconsider ERA
Five states which failed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) are reconsidering that decision, possibly setting up a constitutional confrontation over whether or not the states are still empowered to ratify this Amendment. A committee of the Arkansas Legislature recently rejected a resolution which would have approved the Amendment in that state.
The ERA, which would subject laws discriminating on the basis of sex to strict scrutiny, was approved by 35 states between 1972 and 1982, three short of the 38 necessary for ratification. Congress placed a ten-year deadline on ratification, but legal authority is mixed on whether or not this deadline would be binding, should the amendment be approved by the requisite number of states. Subsequent to Congress' proposing the ERA, the Twenty-Seventh Amendment was ratified, even though it took 203 years for that amendment to obtain the required number of state ratifiers.
States which have not approved the ERA are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia. Resolutions have been introduced in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Virginia to ratify the amendment.
The ERA, which would subject laws discriminating on the basis of sex to strict scrutiny, was approved by 35 states between 1972 and 1982, three short of the 38 necessary for ratification. Congress placed a ten-year deadline on ratification, but legal authority is mixed on whether or not this deadline would be binding, should the amendment be approved by the requisite number of states. Subsequent to Congress' proposing the ERA, the Twenty-Seventh Amendment was ratified, even though it took 203 years for that amendment to obtain the required number of state ratifiers.
States which have not approved the ERA are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia. Resolutions have been introduced in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Virginia to ratify the amendment.
Written By:KipEsquire On February 19, 2007 3:49 PM Written By:verite smith On February 19, 2007 7:12 PM
Since when does a tie mean a resolution is rejected???? The committee in Arkansas DID NOT reject the ERA. It was a tie 10 to 10 and therefore that resolution will come back before that committee sometime during the next few weeks. Besides the committee isn't voting on ratifying the ERA, they are voting on whether to allow the resolution to go to the floor to be voted on by the members of the AR House. Duh
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Ah yes, the Baptist Press, your number one source for reality-based news.
Be sure to catch the part about how it's all a conspiracy to increase access to abortion and mandate gay marriage.