Democrats revive
efforts for ERA
By Cheryl Wetzstein,
washingtontimes.com - Posted March 28, 2007
A bill to restart the ratification
process of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was introduced yesterday by
Democratic congressional leaders, who also pledged to hold the first hearings in
decades on the issue.
"Equality is not a slogan or a fad. It is a fundamental right," said Rep.
Carolyn B. Maloney, New York Democrat and a lead sponsor of the bill.
"We're going to win it now. We've got the votes," she said, as dozens of
young feminists stood and cheered her in a Senate conference room.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat, and
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary
subcommittee on the constitution, civil rights and civil liberties, both said
they would hold hearings on the ERA.
"The ERA is essential," Mr. Nadler said. "We have to enshrine it in the
Constitution."
Democrats in the Senate, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Barbara
Boxer of California, are preparing a companion bill.
The House bill, introduced with the support of 194 lawmakers, proposes that the
sentence, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by
the United States or by any state on account of sex," be added to the
Constitution. The measure must pass with two-thirds of the votes in the
House and Senate, and be ratified in 38 state legislatures.
Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, said yesterday that the
conservative coalition would strongly oppose the "outdated" measure.
The ERA "would not allow any distinction between men and women -- and is limited
to actions by the government, not individuals, businesses or private entities,"
she said.
Courts have used state-passed ERA measures to declare same-sex "marriage" legal
in Hawaii and to force taxpayers to subsidize abortions in New Mexico, she
added. "The ERA would be used to do far more harm than good."
The ERA was first proposed in the 1920s. Congress passed it in 1972, but
after 10 years, only 35 states had ratified it. The U.S. Supreme Court
implied that the measure was dead in a 1982 ruling.
A secondary strategy is under way to get three states that did not ratify the
ERA in the 1970s to do so now and then go to court to get the amendment adopted.
This year, ERA bills have been filed in five of the unratified states --
Arkansas, Arizona, Illinois, Florida and Missouri -- and bills are expected in
Louisiana. This amendment does not differ in wording from the measure
introduced more than 30 years ago.
The other states that have not ratified the ERA are Alabama, Georgia,
Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and
Virginia.
Earlier this month, North Dakota lawmakers passed a bipartisan resolution saying
they are committed to the ERA and urging other states and Congress to adopt it.
"Although North Dakota passed the ERA in 1975, our work won't be complete until
it is ratified and becomes the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution," North
Dakota state Rep. Pam Gulleson, a Democrat, told
www.4ERA.org, an ERA advocacy
group.
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