Political Quotes

“today I am introducing a joint resolution which would remove the deadline for the states' ratification of the equal rights amendment, ERA. I thank Senators Boxer, Durbin, Gillibrand, Harkin, Landrieu, Lautenberg, Menendez, and Mikulski for joining me as original cosponsors. When Congress passed the ERA in 1972, it provided that the measure had to be ratified by \3/4\ of the States, 38 States, within 7 years. This deadline was later extended to 10 years by a joint resolution enacted by Congress, but ultimately only 35 out of 38 States had ratified the ERA when the deadline expired in 1982. Congress can and should give the States another chance. In 1992, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting immediate Congressional pay raises was ratified after 203 years. Article V of the Constitution contains no time limits for ratification of constitutional amendments, and the ERA time limit was contained in a joint resolution, not the actual text of the amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution requires ``equal protection of the laws,'' and the Supreme Court has so far held that most sex or gender classifications are subject to only ``intermediate scrutiny'' when analyzing laws that may have a discriminatory impact. In 2011 Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave an interview in which he stated that ``certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it.…”