Left-wing feminists have been waiting 50 years to tack the Equal Rights Amendment onto the Constitution.
Thanks to Virginia’s elections last fall, they’ll have to wait a little longer.
New commonwealth Attorney General Jason Miyares on Friday withdrew Virginia from a lawsuit trying to force ratification of the amendment, which has officially been dead for more than 40 years.
Miyares believed Virginia, which took the led in trying to adopt the ERA in 2020, was making an invalid argument.
The ERA controversy stems from 1972.
The amendment itself is two sentences: “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.”
Congress approved it in 1972 and sent it to the states. They had seven years to ratify it and needed 38 to do so.
Within a year, 30 states had signed on. By 1977, proponents were up to 35. But the movement stalled.
Congress agreed to provide three additional years. But in the interim, in part because of the efforts of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, five states – Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky, and South Dakota – repealed their endorsement.
Still, when the deadline formally expired in 1982, the official count remained at 35.
Thirty-five years after the deadline expired, Nevada ratified the ERA. Illinois followed, and in 2020, in the minds of many feminists, Virginia put the ERA over the top by becoming No. 38.
The Trump administration, however, declared in January 2020 that the amendment had died with the original deadline. Those three states then sued to force the issue.
After Miyares withdrew from the lawsuit, the conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom applauded the attorney general. The group has asserted the ERA is unnecessary because the Constitution already says all Americans are to be treated equally.
“The Equal Rights Amendment has been legally dead for decades because its proponents failed to secure the required support from the states to amend the Constitution,” ADF General Counsel Kristen Waggoner said in a statement.
“Virginia made the right decision to withdraw from this unsuccessful lawsuit that disrespects our nation’s constitutional amendment process and threatens women’s rights and opportunities. … Virginia’s appropriate withdrawal from this litigation—which never should have been undertaken—respects the American people and the integrity of the Constitution.”
Ironically, liberals themselves undercut their own amendment.
As the ADF noted when it supported the opposition to the lawsuit, men who identify as women could, under the ERA, suddenly claim all the legal perks that have been set aside for women since the amendment was first proposed.
The Washington Times reported that the lawsuit will continue, but it suffered a major setback when Virginia, the lead plaintiff, withdrew.
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