Justice Department Says Virginia Action Would Come Too Late to Ratify ERA

The U.S. Justice Department says the Equal Rights Amendment can no longer be ratified because its deadline expired decades ago, throwing a barrier in the path of activists who want the amendment enacted if ­Virginia’s new, majority Democratic legislature approves it, reports The Washington Post.

Thirty-eight states are required to pass a constitutional amendment, and only 35 had approved it before the 1979 deadline and a subsequent extension to 1982, explains the Post‘s Patricia Sullivan. Two more states ratified the ERA since 2017, and Virginia would be the 38th.

The ERA Coalition said it “strongly disagrees” with the DOJ’s memo.

Read the Washington Post article.

 

 

Tags: AdministrativeLaw, ConstitutionalLaw