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The Equal Rights Amendment: Close to
Adoption?
Updated November 13, 2019
The recent election of Democratic majorities in both chambers of the Virginia legislature has prompted
new discussion of the state ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution when it
convenes in January. In 2018, efforts to ratify the amendment were narrowly defeated in the state House
and Senate. First presented to the states in 1972, the ERA provides that [e]quality of rights under the law
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex. 37 states have now
ratified the ERA, and some supporters of the amendment maintain that ratification by just one additional
state could result in its adoption. After ratification by one more state, the ERA will have been ratified by
three-fourths of the states, as required by Article V of the Constitution. Whether the ERA can be so
adopted, however, is not entirely certain. Questions concerning the expiration of Congress's original
ratification deadline without approval by three-fourths of the states, and the rescission of ratifications by
five states between 1973 and 1978, would likely have to be addressed before the ERA would be formally
adopted.
Background. The power to amend the Constitution is established in Article V. Article V empowers
Congress to propose an amendment when two-thirds of both chambers deem it necessary, or, on the
application of two-thirds of the state legislatures, to call a convention for proposing an amendment. A
proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution when it is ratified by the legislatures of three-
fourths of the states or by conventions in three-fourths of the states. Following ratification by three-
fourths of the states, the Archivist of the United States is to identify the ratifying states and certify that the
amendment has become part of the Constitution.
While Article V provides for the proposal and ratification of constitutional amendments, it is silent with
regard to other procedural matters, such as the time period for ratifying such amendments. H. J. Res. 208,
which first proposed the ERA, was passed by the House and Senate in 1972 during the 92nd Congress. In
its proposing clause, H. J. Res. 208 provided that, for the ERA to be adopted, three-fourths of the states
would have to ratify the amendment within seven years from the date of its submission by the
Congress. In accordance with this provision, the ratification deadline became March 22, 1979, seven
years after the Senate approved H. J. Res. 208.
By the fall of 1977, 35 states had ratified the ERA. In addition, as discussed further below, between 1973
and 1978, five states passed legislation to rescind their ratifications of the ERA. H. J. Res. 638 was
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
LSB10163
CRS INSIGHT
Prepared for Members and
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