Virginia Senate Passes ERA

[niyad]

Virginia Senate Passes ERA


The Republican majority Senate of the state of Virginia passed a resolution to ratify the federal Equal Rights Amendment on Tuesday, the 15th. The resolution was passed by a vote of 26 to 14. Republicans control the Virginia Senate with a 21 to 19 majority. Seven Republicans joined all 19 Democrats in the Senate to support the ratification of the ERA. The resolution now goes to the House. The Senate has passed the resolution five times in the past, but in the Virginia House the Privileges and Elections Committee has blocked the resolution from coming to the floor for a vote.

The ERA was introduced also in the Virginia House of Delegates, by cosponsors, Hala Ayala (D), Luke Torian (D), and Jennifer Carroll Foy (D). The House bill was referred to House privileges and elections committee, whose chair has been known to be opposed to the ERA. The Senate resolution can now also cross over to the House. If the House passes the ERA, the state of Virginia will become the 38th state to ratify the ERA.

The Virginia House due to the 2017 elections now has a majority vote for the ERA. In 2017, 15 new pro ERA delegates were elected, of which 11 are women, two of whom are the chief sponsors of the resolution. Supports of the ERA are hopeful that it is time to reverse 46 years of the Virginia general assembly blocking passage of the ERA.

Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority, a national organization headquartered in Virginia, said that, “a drum is beating for the ERA. It is only a matter of time – short time – that Virginia ratifies its ERA.”


http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2019/01/17/virginia-senate-passes-era/

[maxsolomon]

1. Holy Smokes

This is great - I assumed the ERA was dead in the water decades ago.

How many states have ratified now?

[niyad]

3. 37

you can keep updated here:

https://www.equalrightsamendment.org/

[maxsolomon]

4. Cool. I see the non-ratifiers are exactly who I thought they'd be.

AL, AZ, FL, GA, LA, MS, MO, NC, OK, SC, UT.

38 needed. That's 1 left!

N. Carolina or Missouri seem like the best bets.

[Buckeyeblue]

7. What about AZ? Western states like to claim they are for individual liberty.

[gratuitous]

5. The original ERA ratification effort had a time deadline

The Virginia vote is more symbolic than meaningful.

It might be interesting to see a court challenge to the time deadlines imposed by Congress (first in 1979, then extended to 1982). Does Congress have the authority to set a time limit on states' ratification of a constitutional amendment?

[maxsolomon]

6. oh, boo.

seriously, my wife was upset about the ERA last month. "nothing has changed!"

of course, much has changed. just not that.

[SunSeeker]

2. K & R