‘Women deserve to be treated with equality and fairness under the law, but that’s not what the ERA does…’
(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) Now that the Democratic Party has control over Virginia‘s legislature and governorship, leaders have announced an 11-point “Virginia 2020 Plan,” with the first goal being to pass the long-dead Equal Rights Amendment.
But the ERA, which would eliminate legal distinctions between the two sexes, faces multiple challenges.
The ratification period expired in 1982.
The Justice Department ruled Wednesday that the “ERA Resolution has expired and is no longer pending before the States,” according to a press release from the Alliance Defending Freedom.
“Even if one or more state legislatures were to ratify the 1972 proposal, that action would not complete the ratification of the amendment, and the ERA’s adoption could not be certified,” The Justice Department said in its opinion.
Kristen Waggoner, ADF’s senior vice president of U.S. legal division, agrees with the Justice Department’s opinion and opposes the ERA on its own terms.
“The ERA not only undermines women’s rights and opportunities, it falls far short of the requirements to amend the Constitution,” Waggoner said. “Women deserve to be treated with equality and fairness under the law, but that’s not what the ERA does.”
When the deadline for the ERA expired, 35 of 38 had ratified it. In 2017, Nevada ratified the ERA, and Illinois followed in 2018.
Virginia is expected to follow suit this year.
“It will pass,” Virginia House Speaker-elect Eileen Filler–Corn confidently said.
Five states, Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee and South Dakota, revoked their support for the ERA decades ago.
So even if Virginia ratifies the ERA and if it were still pending ratification, which it is not, the 38-state threshold for ratification will not be met.
Another growing problem for the ERA is that transgenderism and identity politics threaten the once-solid coalition of pro-ERA forces.
Some feminists in America speak strongly against transgenderism—particularly against the inclusion of so-called transgender women (biological males) among the feminist ranks—while other feminists support the inclusion of transgender individuals into the lesbian, gay and bisexual alliance.