- Legal Basis of the “Three State Strategy”
- Library of Congress Analyzes Three-State Strategy
- Why the ERA Remains Legally Viable and Properly Before the States
by A.Held, S.Herndon, D. Stager published in the Spring 1997 issue of William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law
The Equal Rights Amendment, passed by Congress in 1972, would have become the 27th Amendment to the Constitution if three-fourths of the states had ratified it by June 30, 1982. However, that date passed with only 35 of the necessary 38 state ratifications. Instead, the 27th Amendment is the “Madison Amendment,” concerning Congressional pay raises, which went to the states for ratification in 1789 and reached the three-fourths goal in 1992.
The fact that a 203-year ratification period was accepted as valid has led ERA supporters to propose that Congress has the power to maintain the legal viability of the ERA and the existing 35 state ratifications. If so, only three more state ratifications would be needed to make the ERA part of the Constitution. Legal analysis supporting this strategy was developed in 1995 by Allison Held, Sheryl Herndon and Danielle Stager, then third-year law students at the T. C. Williams School of Law in Richmond, VA. Their article was published in the Spring 1997 issue of William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law.
LEGAL RATIONALE
Article V of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to propose an amendment and to determine the mode of ratification, but it is silent as to the power of Congress to impose time limits or its role after ratification by three-fourths of the states.
Continued: http://www.4era.org/threestate.html
Men for the ERA 