Not 38 but 33 and the amendment is dead anyway
The progressives are celebrating the action at the General Assembly “ratifying” the ERA today.
Just to show you how ridiculous the argument is on this subject – here’s a little gem in the email I got from the Senator Mark Warner campaign:
It’s 2020, and it’s still constitutional to discriminate on the basis of sex.
I think the 14th Amendment has something to say about gender-based discrimination. So does the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act!
But the celebration will be short-lived. The ERA is dead and cannot be ratified; here is why. The Office of Legal Counsel advised the Archivist that the ERA expired in 1982. (Besides five states took back their ratification on or before 1982 and those actions need to be upheld. The lawsuit filed by South Dakota [and Alabama/Louisiana] ought to help here.
But it might take a lawsuit to stop it. Might be a way to challenge this so-called ratification in Virginia. Probably the best way to do it is await the decision of the Archivist that these actions are not valid and then when the AG challenges that decision in Federal Court, voters or legislators (Del. Mark Cole comes readily to mind) intervene to seek dismissal of that suit.
So bring it on! The Constitution is too valuable to be compromised by a dubious “ratification”.
About Elwood Sanders
Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)
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