The bill acknowledges the validity of an amendment to the United States Constitution proposed in 1972 and ratified by three-fourths of the states. This resolution addresses the time limit set in the House Joint Resolution 208, 92nd Congress, and affirms the amendment's status as part of the Constitution, despite any previous time constraints.
This joint resolution provides that the Equal Rights Amendment, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, was ratified by three-fourths of the states and is therefore a valid constitutional amendment, regardless of any time limit that was in the original proposal.
The Equal Rights Amendment was originally proposed to the states in 1972. The original proposal included a deadline for ratification of March 22, 1979; Congress subsequently extended the deadline to June 30, 1982. Although the requisite 38 states have ratified the amendment, three of these states did so after the deadlines, and five states subsequently rescinded their ratifications. The status of the amendment has been the subject of litigation.
