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NRLC memo to Illinois General Assembly, in opposition to resolution purporting to ratify the 1972 federal ERA — April 26, 2018
To view or download PDF version, click here.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) announced the reintroduction of the proposed federal ERA in the U.S. House of Representatives at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on July 21, 2009. Read the flyer that a group of ERA supporters associated with the competing “three-state” strategy handed out at that press conference (“This is not the time to start over . . .”) [PDF]

New Federal ERA Introduced in Congress – March 30, 2007

NRL News: ‘three-state strategy’ to revive pro-abortion 1972 federal ERA turned back in Arkansas [PDF] – March, 2007

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “The ERA and Abortion: Not So Simple.” Op-Ed by NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson – April 4, 2000

Legal brief written by NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund lawyers, submitted to New Mexico Supreme Court on behalf of the New Mexico Women’s Bar Association and the New Mexico Public Health Association, arguing that an ERA nullifies state policy against funding of abortion — January, 1996

NRL News: New Mexico Supreme Court Ruling the ERA Requires Taxpayer-Funded Abortions — November 25, 1998

Read the text of the New Mexico Supreme Court ERA-Abortion decision (1998) [PDF]

“Night of the Living Dead Amendment.” George F. Will dissects the “three-state” theory promoted by some ERA supporters [PDF] – February 13, 1994

American Politics Magazine: “Aborting the ERA,” by NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson [PDF] – May, 1987

Catholic Bishops oppose federal ERA unless it is amended [PDF] – April 26, 1984

NRL News: U. S. House of Representatives rejects attempt to revive unamended federal ERA [PDF] – September 24, 1983

Some people think that the federal ERA proposed in 1972 can be resurrected by state legislatures (the so-called “three-state strategy”), or by Congress.   However, in 1982 the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that the federal ERA sent to the state legislatures by Congress in 1972 was legally dead.  Read the Supreme Court’s order, as well as a memo from the Acting Solicitor General of the United States on which the order was based.  [PDF]

Decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho in Idaho v. Freeman, in which the court found that the congressional attempt to extend the ERA ratification deadline from 1979 to 1982 was unconstitutional, and found that rescissions (withdrawals) of ratification prior to the original deadline were valid [PDF] – December 23, 1981

The complete ERA Resolution as approved by the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate during the 92nd Congress, 1971-1972, submitted to the states on March 22, 1972, with a 7-year ratification deadline in the Proposing Clause. [PDF] [.JPG files are here and here]