A woman holds up a sign as members of Congress and representatives of women’s groups hold a rally to mark the 40th anniversary of congressional passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) outside the U.S. Capitol March 22, 2012, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Six Florida U.S. House Democrats have joined more than 100 of their colleagues in sending a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) before he leaves office next month.
“We commend the work of the Biden-Harris administration to advance gender equality,” reads a portion of the letter. “We must continue our efforts to fully affirm and recognize the equality of rights for all people, regardless of sex, as part of our Constitution, a vital effort that has never been more urgent. This action is essential as we prepare to transition to an administration that has been openly hostile to reproductive freedom, access to health care, and LGBTQIA+ rights.”
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kathy Castor, Maxwell Frost, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Darren Soto, and Frederica Wilson are the Florida Democratic members of Congress who signed the letter. A total of 122 House Democrats put their name on the letter sent to Biden.
Congress passed the ERA in 1972 with a stipulation that 38 state legislatures had to ratify it within seven years. When that deadline expired, only 35 states had done so, and the push to add equality protections “on account of sex” into the U.S. Constitution ended.
But in the past decade, three state legislatures have approved the ERA — in 2017, Nevada became the 36th state to do so; Illinois did the same in 2018 and Virginia passed it in 2020, bringing that number to 38.
A federal judge ruled in 2021 that the deadline to ratify the ERA had “expired long ago.” In his opinion, Judge Rudolph Contreras said that the three states that had ratified the ERA in recent years were “too late to count.”
It also should be noted that five of the original 35 states that signed off on the ERA in the 1970s have since rescinded their support.
“The ERA would help eliminate gender-based pay gaps, improve workplace protections, and ensure that gender biases no longer affect hiring, promotions, or job security,” the Democrats write in their letter to the president.
“With the ERA enshrined in the Constitution, people who experience sex-based discrimination would have a clearer legal path to challenge discriminatory laws or policies. California’s state ERA did just that, securing protections for women in the workforce and ensuring equal treatment in education and healthcare.”
Certification
On August 23, President Biden issued a “Proclamation on Women’s Equality Day,” in which he urged Congress to recognize the ERA “and affirm the fundamental truth that all Americans should have equal rights and protections under the law.”
“Yet, the ERA has already met the constitutional requirements for ratification,” the letter signed by the congressional Democrats state. “The amendment guarantees that (1) “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,” (2) “Congress shall have the power to enforce this article,” and (3) the amendment “shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.”
The Democrats note in their letter that “[a]ccording to 1 U.S.C. § 106b, when the National Archives and Records Administration receives official notice that a proposed amendment to the Constitution has been approved by enough states, the Archivist must certify that amendment, list the states that approved the amendment, and publish the amendment as an official part of the U.S. Constitution.”
They note that the Archivist has not certified or published the ERA as part of the Constitution.
Public opinion polls taken over the years have shown strong support from American voters for the ERA.
A 2020 Pew Research Center Survey found that 78% of adults, including majorities of men and women and Republicans and Democrats alike, said they would favor adding the ERA to the Constitution. And a 2022 poll by the progressive think tank Data for Progress showed that 85% of all likely voters said they supported Congress passing the ERA.