This bill aims to validate an article of amendment proposed to the States in a previous resolution, affirming its status as part of the Constitution. It emphasizes that the amendment has been ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States. The impact of this bill would be to officially recognize and incorporate the proposed amendment into the Constitution.
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38 states have ratified the amendment, three of these states did so after the deadlines, and five states subsequently rescinded their ratifications.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.
