When Congress proposed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, the proposing resolution stated the amendment would become part of the Constitution “when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission . . . “Those seven years will be over next March. However, Congress and several state legislatures are now considering actions that would create serious doubt, among legal scholars as well as the general public, about what is part of the Constitution and what is not.
Ratifications by 38 state legislatures are necessary for final passage. To date, 35 legislatures have ratified; of these, four have passed resolutions purporting to rescind their ratifications. Congress, meanwhile, is considering a resolution (already passed by the House Judiciary Committee) to extend for another 39 months the period in which states may ratify. In March, we will all—those of us who wish to know for sure what the Constitution says—find ourselves in one of the following situations:
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