Virginia Ratifies the ERA!

That brings us up to 38 states, which is what we need to pass the amendment! But that is not necessarily the end of the story. There are legal complications because it’s been so long since states started ratifying it.

First proposed in 1923, the ERA was reintroduced in every session of Congress until it passed in 1972. U.S. lawmakers set a deadline of March 22, 1979 for three-quarters of the states to ratify the amendment, a measure ERA supporters now say is unconstitutional because it was not included in the amendment text.AD

As that deadline approached, Congress extended it to June 30, 1982. Because only 35 of the needed 38 state legislatures ratified the ERA by that time, the amendment was declared a failure.

Subsequently, legislatures in five states — Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee and South Dakota — rescinded their ratifications. ERA supporters say there is no provision for recissions in the Constitution, and therefore they do not count. No federal court has conclusively ruled on that question.

Even so, this is why it was important to flip it blue. Even if they’re not that progressive.

I put this up as fast as I could after I saw the news so if y’all have more details, have at it.

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18 Comments

  1. It’s funny … the last time there was a Constitutional amendment, it involved denying senators a pay raise or something like that … but it took nearly two centuries to ratify, and it was some teenager who found the old rule and somehow petitioned the state houses to ratify it. Better late than never.

  2. Considering this is the ERA we’re talking about, and not a constitutional amendment to train babies how to use a firearm, my guess is the right wing SCOTUS will either refuse to hear the case or slap it down 5-4.

  3. I saw this on twitter and went all jackiechanwhat.gif at the fact that only 38 states recognize that women are equal. We really do live in th eabsolutely worst hellscape reality. I seriously believe time/space was ripped in 2015 throwing us crazily of our axis.

    • OMG I know. And half the time their lying argument against it is “we don’t need it because women are already equal.” OH REALLY WELL THAT SHOULD MEAN IT’S JUST SYMBOLIC AND CHANGES NOTHING RIGHT SO YOU SHOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH IT.

    • [narrator voice]: those other states still think it’s okay to own people.

      And if we were ‘already equal’, we wouldn’t be making 77 cents to their dollar; and losing career time when/if we start/expand a family. And I guarantee you bc co-pays are more than ed co-pays…know why? Cause women ain’t equal, baby, and guess who’s in charge of healthcare?

    • It’s not even a full 38. 5 states that had originally ratified it (Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee, and South Dakota) have rescinded their ratification. 4 of them did it prior to March 22nd, 1979, South Dakota did it on that date.

      • Yeah what I am seeing is there is no legal allowance for revoking a ratification, so that would be the argument that what’s done is done, but that would require the court saying it’s so.

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