Equal Rights Amendment

I’m ready to support the Equal Rights Amendment! Take me to the Actions section.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It was passed by Congress in 1972 and sent the states for ratification with a deadline of 1979. Thirty-five states ratified it with wide, bipartisan support (including that of both major political parties, both houses of Congress, and presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carters. Thirty-eight states were needed for ratification.

In 1978, Congress passed (by simple majorities in each house), and President Carter signed, a joint resolution with the intent of extending the ratification deadline to June 30, 1982. Because no additional state legislatures ratified the ERA between March 22, 1979, and June 30, 1982, the validity of that disputed extension was rendered academic. Since 1978, attempts have been made in Congress to extend or remove the deadline.

In 2017, Nevada became the first state to ratify the ERA after the expiration of both deadlines, and Illinois followed in 2018. In 2020, Virginia’s General Assembly passed a ratification resolution for the ERA, claiming to bring the number of ratifications to 38. However, experts and advocates have acknowledged legal uncertainty about the consequences of the Virginian ratification, due to expired deadlines and five states’ revocations.

Read more about the ERA HERE.

Actions

Below is a list of actions you can take to support the Equal Rights Amendment. For the complete list of actions, visit the ERA Coalition website.

Action one:  Send a postcard or sign a letter to Senate Majority Schumer to tell him to schedule a vote on SJ Res 1, the bill to remove the time limit from the ERA, without further delay.

Action two:  Send a postcard or sign a letter to your House Representative, thanking him for signing onto Res 891, the resolution that recognizes the ERA as the 28th amendment and urge him to work to pass it in the house.

Action three:  Send a postcard or sign a petition to Attorney General Merrick Garland to take the immediate action of directing his Office of Legal Counsel to withdraw the January 6, 2020 opinion memo from the Attorney General Barr Department of Justice.

Action four:  Send a postcard or sign a letter to President Biden to send guidance to the US Archivist to publish the ERA.

Action five: Sign the Women’s March petition to publish the ERA and make it the 28th Amendment.