On the recordFebruary 11, 2020
I am waiting for another speaker, but I will yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, there are a couple of things that my colleague from the Rules Committee, Ms. Scanlon, said. She said something to the effect of nothing in the Constitution sets a deadline. Well, I have to disagree with that. Actually, it is not just me; it is the Supreme Court. A 1921 Supreme Court decision, Dillon v. Gloss, affirmed that: Congress has the power to fix the definite time limit for ratification of a proposed constitutional amendment under its authority to determine the mode of ratification for an amendment under Article V of the Constitution. As I said before, this expired back in 1979. I mean, that is 41 years ago. Then, of course, back then, Congress came forward, and my understanding is they just did a majority vote instead of the two- thirds that I believe is needed to deal with a constitutional amendment. But no other States had ratified. In fact, by the 1979 deadline, five States had withdrawn their ratification. So you were at 35, then it went down to 30, and it is dead. When my colleague says Justice Ginsberg supports the ERA, I know that. That is my point. She does support the ERA. But even she said we need to start all over again because the deadline has passed.…
