The Week

“The United States is a bizarre country. Everything has to go through the Congress” (Souvanna Phouma, former Prime Minister of Laos).

ERA is reeling, may be dead already. The original deadline is past; ERA foes are whooping it up, while three Washington legislators have asked the state supreme court to declare the extension unconstitutional. “The deadline for ratification expired at midnight,” said one, “and Washington’s ratification expired.” Four other ratifying states have voted to rescind; the Kentucky legislature’s rescission vote was vetoed by the acting governor; several other states are having second thoughts. The result is a constitutional mess that can only make sober legislators conscious that a pro-ERA vote now is more surely a vote for a brouhaha than an expression of the kind of consensus the Constitution should represent. ERA supporters are now committed to a bloody-minded position: that if 37 states ratify and rescind, a single state can, during the extension period, impose a constitutional amendment.

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“The United States is a bizarre country. Everything has to go through the Congress” (Souvanna Phouma, former Prime Minister of Laos).

ERA is reeling, may be dead already. The original deadline is past; ERA foes are whooping it up, while three Washington legislators have asked the state supreme court to declare the extension unconstitutional. “The deadline for ratification expired at midnight,” said one, “and Washington’s ratification expired.” Four other ratifying states have voted to rescind; the Kentucky legislature’s rescission vote was vetoed by the acting governor; several other states are having second thoughts. The result is a constitutional mess that can only make sober legislators conscious that a pro-ERA vote now is more surely a vote for a brouhaha than an expression of the kind of consensus the Constitution should represent. ERA supporters are now committed to a bloody-minded position: that if 37 states ratify and rescind, a single state can, during the extension period, impose a constitutional amendment.