- Legal Basis of the "Three State Strategy"
- Library of Congress Analyzes Three-State Strategy
- Why the ERA Remains Legally Viable and Properly Before the States
The Equal Rights Amendment, passed by Congress in 1972, would have become the 27th Amendment to the Constitution if three-fourths of the states had ratified it by June 30, 1982. However, that date passed with only 35 of the necessary 38 state ratifications. Instead, the 27th Amendment is the "Madison Amendment," concerning Congressional pay raises, which went to the states for ratification in 1789 and reached the three-fourths goal in 1992.
The fact that a 203-year ratification period was accepted as valid has led ERA supporters to propose that Congress has the power to maintain the legal viability of the ERA and the existing 35 state ratifications. If so, only three more state ratifications would be needed to make the ERA part of the Constitution. Legal analysis supporting this strategy was developed in 1995 by Allison Held, Sheryl Herndon and Danielle Stager, then third-year law students at the T. C. Williams School of Law in Richmond, VA. Their article was published in the Spring 1997 issue of William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law.
LEGAL RATIONALE
Article V of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to propose an amendment and to determine the mode of ratification, but it is silent as to the power of Congress to impose time limits or its role after ratification by three-fourths of the states.
Continued: http://www.4era.org/threestate.html
Our founders drafted our Constitution in a time when white, male, property-holders were "more equal" than others. Over time, we've amended our Constitution to reflect more inclusive and enlightened understanding. "We the People" understand that all the people deserve full and complete respect, and equal status under the law. Today, few seriously argue that some people deserve fewer rights than others or should suffer inferior status.
The 14th Amendment added this to the US Constitution: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
The 15th Amendment specifies: "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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude. ... The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
These amendments outlaw inequality "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," but were silent regarding gender. These legal protections for some people facing de jure discrimination failed to extend equal status, rights and protections to women. It is long past time to redress this omission and pass the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA would closely parallel the text of the 15th Amendment, extending equality to women. Anything less would leave our Constitution a flawed and incomplete document.
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.