Will Utah be the state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment?

[90DayFinancier 910]

https://www.abc4.com/news/will-utah-be-the-state-to-ratify-the-equal-rights-amendment/

 

 

[Dashinka 24,492]

Certainly would not be a bad thing, but from what I read, Congress would then have to weigh in with respect to the original expiration date.

[90DayFinancier 910]

5 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

Certainly would not be a bad thing, but from what I read, Congress would then have to weigh in with respect to the original expiration date.

Interesting.

[Dashinka 24,492]

Just now, 90DayFinancier said:

Interesting.

I realize this is Wikipedia, but there are certainly a lot of questions especially regarding the four states that rescinded their ratifications.  What surprises me is that Virginia has not ratified it yet.  In reality, it is kind of outdated based on codified laws, but it would not be a bad thing to actually enshrine in the Constitution.

 

In the courts[edit]

On December 23, 1981, a federal district court, in the case of Idaho v. Freeman, ruled that the extension of the ERA ratification deadline to June 30, 1982, was not valid and that, ERA had actually expired from state legislative consideration more than two years earlier on the original expiration date of March 22, 1979. On January 25, 1982, however, the U.S. Supreme Court "stayed" the lower court's decision, thus signaling to the legislatures of still-unratified states that they may continue consideration of ERA during their spring 1982 legislative sessions.

After the disputed June 30, 1982, extended deadline had come and gone, the Supreme Court, at the beginning of its new term, on October 4, 1982, in the separate case of NOW v. Idaho, 459 U.S. 809 (1982), vacated the federal district court decision in Idaho v. Freeman,^[84] which, in addition to declaring March 22, 1979, as ERA's expiration date, had upheld the validity of state rescissions. The Supreme Court declared these controversies moot on the grounds that the ERA had not received the required number of ratifications (38), so that "the Amendment has failed of adoption no matter what the resolution of the legal issues presented here."^[85][86]

In the 1939 case of Coleman v. Miller,^[87] the Supreme Court ruled that Congress has the final authority to determine whether, by lapse of time, a proposed constitutional amendment has lost its vitality before being ratified by enough states, and whether state ratifications are effective in light of attempts at subsequent withdrawal. The Court stated: "We think that, in accordance with this historic precedent, the question of the efficacy of ratifications by state legislatures, in the light of previous rejection or attempted withdrawal, should be regarded as a political question pertaining to the political departments, with the ultimate authority in the Congress in the exercise of its control over the promulgation of the adoption of the amendment."^[88] However, this case was one where the Congress had not explicitly set a deadline, unlike the ERA proposal which explicitly contained a seven year limit. The Court, in 1939, upheld Congressional authority to determine in 1868 that the Fourteenth Amendment was properly ratified, including states that had attempted to rescind prior ratifications.^{[citation needed]}

In the context of this judicial precedent, nonpartisan counsel to a Nevada state legislative committee concluded in 2017 that "If three more states sent their ratification to the appropriate federal official, it would then be up to Congress to determine whether a sufficient number of states have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment."^[89] In 2018, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring wrote an opinion suggesting that Congress could extend or remove the ratification deadline.^[90][91] However, these opinions run contrary to the fact the Supreme Court rejected an appeal in 1982 in NOW v. Idaho due to mootness, consistent with the position the Congress would have to resubmit the amendment to the states again for ratification.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment