Why the ERA is back

Equality before the law must be enshrined

The Equal Rights Amendment is before us again and stands a chance of reaching the 38-state threshold to be adopted.

Advocates for the ERA have never given up on passing this nearly century-old proposed amendment, though some have assumed it has been dead since the 1980s.

If added to the Constitution, the ERA would prohibit deprivation of equality of rights by the federal or state governments “on account of sex.”

The Republican-controlled Virginia state Senate recently ratified the ERA. However, the ERA stalled in a Republican-controlled Virginia House of Delegates, killing it in Virginia. However, it is on the move in Minnesota. Nevada ratified it in 2017, and Illinois in 2018 — becoming the 37th state to do so.

Advocates have not given up. They say the ERA is like the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. Equality before the law must be the law of the land. The Constitution should be absolutely clear that gender cannot be used to deprive a person of his or her rights.

Supporters also say there are still practical wrongs to be righted — working women earning less than men, for one thing.

The path ahead is not certain for the ERA. But Congress can extend the 1982 deadline. It has that power. It’s not too much to ask for the basic legal rights of women to be clarified and concretized. Justice Antonin Scalia said in 2011 that the Constitution does not require discrimination based upon sex, but neither does it prohibit it. It should.