The John Birch Society BY THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY
Members of Congress are seeking to retroactively remove the ratification deadline from the original Equal Rights Amendment legislation passed by Congress in 1972, HJR 208 of the 92nd Congress. This is a desperate attempt by the Left to circumvent the legislative process and rule of law in order to ram through the ERA into the Constitution.
Members of Congress are seeking to retroactively remove the ratification deadline from the original Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) legislation passed by Congress in 1972, HJR 208 of the 92nd Congress. This is a desperate attempt to circumvent the legislative process and rule of law in order to ram through the radical leftist ERA into the U.S. Constitution.
For those unfamiliar with the ERA, it was a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that failed to meet the requirements for ratification within the originally given and accepted timeframe. The text of the ERA states:
Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
S.J.Res.4 is sponsored by Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and is cosponsored by 52 other senators. H.J.Res.25 is sponsored by Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and 187 other representatives. Both resolutions would retroactively remove the ratification deadline for the ERA. On April 27, the Senate voted 51-47 on whether to invoke cloture on S.J.Res.4; because the resolution needed 60 votes to overcome the filibuster, it did not pass. Nonetheless, these resolutions are at serious risk of passing.
These resolutions are unconstitutional. The deadline that Congress imposed for ratifying the ERA expired long ago. The Department of Justiceâs Office of Legal Counsel long agreed with this obvious truth. On January 6, 2020, it stated:
Congress may not revive a proposed amendment after a deadline for its ratification has expired. Should Congress wish to propose the amendment anew, it may do so through the same procedures required to propose an amendment in the first instance, consistent with Article V of the Constitution.
On January 26, 2022, however, the DOJ under Joe Biden and Merrick Garland â which also targeted parents as âdomestic terroristsâ while defending Antifa and supporting illegal migration â issued a new statement effectively abandoning the 2020 opinion. The Biden White House also issued its own statement calling for the ERAâs ratification…
