https://www.npr.org/2020/01/15/796754345/virginia-ratifies-the-equal-rights-amendment-decades-after-deadline


Virginia became the pivotal 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment after its Senate and House of Delegates voted Wednesday to approve the change to the U.S. Constitution.

The ERA's provisions include a guarantee that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

"The Virginia Senate voted 28-12 and the House of Delegates 59-41 to approve the ERA," NPR's Sarah McCammon reports.

Under the U.S. Constitution, amendments become law when they're ratified by at least three-fourths of U.S. state legislatures — or 38 out of 50. However, the ERA's original deadline for ratification expired in the 1980s, putting its future on uncertain legal ground. That didn't stop backers in Virginia from welcoming a long-awaited day.


Congress approved the ERA in 1972 and set a deadline of 1979 for the requisite 38 states to approve it. But it stalled at 35 states.

Here are a couple of questions:


The original attempt to add this amendment to the Constitution incorporated a time limit.

So, who is the plaintiff in the action and on whom is their suit filed?

Congress proposed the amendment. If congress files an action with the Supreme Court asking the court to overturn the impediment of the 'time limit', do they file that action against themselves? And if they do, and they don't file an answer or otherwise respond, can congress demand a judgment against itself?

Oo! Oo! What if in trying to serve the Summons & Complaint on itself, Congress successfully evades service!?!?

I gotz ta know!!!

I've never forgiven that denizen of the lowest depths of Hades, Phyllis Schlafly, for killing the ERA.

She (and Anita Bryant) remind me of my mom in the '70s and '80s getting religion and trying to drag us all into it with her. We'd been old line "liberal" Episcopalians (dad was Irish Catholic), my brother was a Priest from San Francisco (Berkeley, 1971), but my dad's fortunes took a plunge in the late '60s, I think, due to my mother's ambition behind the scenes networking.

I knew about Catholics (2000 year history), Episcopalians (thank you, Henry VIII and his sex drive), then there were the cheap newer American knockoff churches run by semi-pro ministers from forgettable bible colleges, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, and independent churches in desperate little wooden boxes that came and went. I thought Mormons were just another version of non descript Methodists, Baptists, and whatever else was on that menu.

When I tried to blow out of home for "college" and Utah, I picked up that the Indians were Jewish, and said, "oh, oh."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2020 03:18AM by snagglepuss.

King Henry VIII is my greatx17 grandfather.

There are actually several pending amendments out there, including the Congressional Apportionment amendment (1789) and the Child Labor amendment (1924). Unlike the ERA, Congress did not set time limits fo these amendments, so theoretically they are still awaiting ratification by the required three-fourths of the state legislatures.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Unratified_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution

I'll skip the details, but the list of proposed amendments to the constitution (but that failed to pass congress) also makes for some interesting reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proposed_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution