Equal+Rights+Amendment



The Equal Rights Amendment was originally written by a woman named Alice Paul, and in 1923 it was first introduced to congress. In 1972 it was able to pass congress, but it failed to gain ratification before its deadline on June 30, 1982. Therefore the Equal Rights Amendment has still not yet been included in the United States Constitution. The text includes three sections. **Section 1. ** Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.  **Section 2. ** The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article//.//  **Section 3. ** This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification In 1978 approaching the original 1979 deadline, the amendment was not ratified by the necessary thirty eight states, but Elizabeth Holtzman of New York was able to get the deadline extended for three more years. In those three years no more states ratified the amendment, and only thirty five of the thirty eight necessary states ratified the amendment. Also, in 1981 a United States District Court stated the Equal Rights Amendment deadline was unconstitutional and allowed states to rescind their prior ratification, but the case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, and it was decided that because the needed thirty eight states did not ratify the amendment the rescissions were invalid. Since then, the amendment has been reintroduced in every session of Congress since 1982.