PRESS RELEASE
Dec. 18, 2019
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Time's Up on a Bad Constitutional Amendment
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Eagle Forum applauds Alabama, Louisiana, and South Dakota for their decision to halt efforts to resurrect the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Adopting a Constitutional amendment requires the favor of a super-majority of both houses of Congress and a super-majority of the 50 individual states. This combined with a “contemporaneous consensus” ensures that our Constitution isn’t subject to fleeting cultural whims.
 Recent attempts to pass the ERA have not acknowledged the seven-year passage requirement given in the preamble of the 1972 original amendment. For 24 of the states, their votes to ratify ERA explicitly expired on March 22, 1979. To add to this, in 1982, the Supreme Court ruled in NOW v. Idaho that the ERA failed ratification and was effectively dead.
In response to the attempt by states to “pass” the ERA after the 1982 case, the House of Representatives has introduced legislation removing the time limit. However, Congress cannot retroactively decide that the 7-year deadline is no longer relevant and states seeking ratification should ask their Representative and Senators to begin the process anew. On this, both Phyllis Schlafly and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed.
“The Equal Rights Amendment is the ultimate Congressional power grab,” said Eagle Forum President Eunie Smith. “Not only does Congress think they can legislate away the deadline, but the amendment’s section two provides both Chambers broad power to enforce its provisions. Eagle Forum thanks these states for their adherence to Constitutional protocol.”
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