Dec. 16 (UPI) — A group of more than 120 House Democrats signed a letter asking President Joe Biden to call on the U.S. archivist to recognize the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution despite the deadline passing decades ago.
The group, led by Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Cori Bush, D-Mo., wrote in the letter the amendment, which would enshrine sex equality into the Constitution, should be published despite not receiving enough state ratifications by the 1982 date set by Congress.
“The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced to ensure constitutional gender equality as the law of the land,” Pressley said “Yet over a century later, we’re still fighting to codify the ERA.”
The letter said Nevada ratified the amendment in 2017, Illinois in 2018 and Virginia in 2020, giving it the 38-stare threshold to become part of the Constitution.
“We urge you to issue a proclamation recognizing the ERA as the 28 Amendment and direct the archivist to certify and publish it,” Bush wrote.
Archivist David Ferriero, however, has bucked certification based on a 2017 memo from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel stating that the ERA did not meet a Congressional 1982 deadline and the ratification process would need to start over.
The ERA was first approved by the House back in 1971 and the Senate in 1972 but fell short of the 38 states needed to ratify it until Illinois, Nevada, and Virginia signed on.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras followed that by rejecting a lawsuit filed by Illinois, Nevada, and Virginia attempting to sue over Ferriero’s refusal. If Democratic lawmakers get their way, it would likely be met with a flurry of lawsuits against the measure because of the 1982 deadline.