Effort to revive federal E.R.A. suffers stunning
setback,
as Arkansas House committee votes down ratification resolution
WASHINGTON (February 7, 2007) – Supporters
of the so-called "three-state strategy" to revive the federal
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) – approved by Congress in 1972 –
suffered a stunning setback today in the Arkansas legislature,
as a House panel voted down a ratification resolution (HJR 1002)
after 20 co-sponsors abandoned it.
HJR 1002 is part of the "three-state strategy," which is
based on the hotly debated premise that the 1972 ERA can be
ratified if three new states join the 35 that ratified during
the 1970s – even though the ratification deadline passed in
1979, and even though five states had rescinded their
ratifications before the deadline. (Ratification of a
constitutional amendment requires 38 states.) A national
organizer for the "three-state" campaign was quoted in the
Kansas City Star (February 7) explaining, "This is very
much under the radar."
Ratification resolutions have been introduced this year in
a number of other states that never ratified the 1972 ERA,
including Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, and Mississippi.
In Arkansas, "Many ERA supporters were not candid with the
legislators, and that came back to bite them," said Douglas
Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life
Committee (NRLC), which opposes the 1972 ERA language. "Some
lawmakers changed their minds, once they learned how ERAs have
been used to require tax funding of abortion in New Mexico and
Connecticut. Some legislators also learned for the first time
that the 1972 ERA contained a seven-year deadline and cannot be
revived by any number of states. In fact, 26 of the 35 states
that ratified during the 1970s explicitly mentioned the
seven-year deadline in their ratification resolutions, and in
1982 the U.S. Supreme Court declared the ERA dead."
Just a week ago (Jan. 31), the national pro-ERA newsletter
"The ERA Campaigner" reported, "The hopes of ERA supporters all
over the country are now high that the Arkansas legislature will
ratify the ERA within the next few weeks." On January 24, Gov.
Mike Bebee, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, and Attorney General Dustin
McDaniel spoke to a pro-ERA rally at the state capitol. On the
same day, supporters introduced HJR 1002 with 66 cosponsors –
far more than the 50 votes needed to pass it. They anticipated
no difficulty passing the measure in the House, and were hopeful
about the Senate, which narrowly defeated a ratification
resolution in 2005.
But today,
after hearing from NRLC, Arkansas Right to Life, and other
groups about both the irregularity of the process and the
substantive legal implications of the proposed ERA, 20
cosponsors withdrew their support. The State Agencies &
Governmental Affairs Committee then defeated HJR 1002 on a 10-10
vote, with two cosponsors voting against it.
For additional documentation on both the
deadline issue and the ERA-abortion connection, please see the
documents posted on the NRLC website here:
http://www.nrlc.org/Federal/era/Index.html
