I am delighted by today's passage of the Senate resolution extending the time for the States to ratify the equal rights amendment to the Constitution.

I believe it is past time for that protection to be written into the Constitution of the United States.

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the United States of America including the National Security Act of 1947, as amended, and as President of the United States of America, in order to provide for the organization and control of United States foreign intelligence activities, it is hereby ordered as follows.

I pledge to you that I would uphold the Constitution.

I promise you once more, to uphold the Constitution, to do what is right as God gives me the right.

I believe that both these provisions are unconstitutional.

I must comment briefly on one provision in the bill which I am advised by the Attorney General is an unconstitutional 'coming into agreement' clause, infringing on the fundamental principle of the separation of legislative and executive powers.

In 1971 let us recall the framework of freedom that we established in 1791.

Today, the light of that great charter guides us yet.

Since the Honolulu conference, more than 80 percent of the registered voters of South Vietnam have elected an assembly to draft a constitution.

I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes, including Section 201(a) (2) of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, do proclaim that

It is just as ridiculous to charge a man to vote, and therefore, on that basis, it is in violation of the Constitution.

The fulfillment of the promise of our Constitution, and an end to American poverty, are among such principles.

So long as I am President, I intend to honor the mandate of the Constitution that I am sworn to uphold.

Our will and our work today is that the meaning of our country and our Constitution, and our destiny, shall be the same for all Americans, regardless of their creed or their color or their origins.

On that same rock of the Constitution, our Republic still stands.

On this day 177 years ago our forefathers ordained and established the Constitution of the United States.

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the United States, and as President of the United States, and deeming such action necessary in the best interest of the national security, it is hereby ordered as follows: