Federal judge dismisses suit seeking recognition of Virginia’s vote to ratify ERA News
dcandau / Pixabay
Federal judge dismisses suit seeking recognition of Virginia’s vote to ratify ERA

Judge Rudolph Contreras of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday dismissed a lawsuit from Nevada, Illinois and Virginia that sought government recognition of Virginia’s vote to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Contreras ruled that the deadline to pass the amendment had passed.

The ERA was first proposed in 1972 to prevent the denial or abridgement of equal rights because of sex. Virginia voted to ratify the ERA in January 2020, making it the thirty-eighth state to ratify the amendment. This satisfied the 3/4 majority of states required by Article V of the Constitution.

However, the deadline for ratification of the ERA was in 1982, which was 10 years after it was sent by Congress to the states. Because of this, the National Archives, which is the agency charged with certifying amendments to the Constitution, would not certify the ERA. As the last three states to ratify the amendment, Nevada, Illinois and Virginia challenged this refusal.

Contreras found Friday that the archives’ publication and certification of the amendment were simply formalities that had no legal effect. Because this caused no concrete injury to the states, they lacked standing to sue. Additionally, even if they did have standing, Congress had set deadlines for ratifying the ERA that passed decades ago.

Contreras reasoned that the Archivist has authority to examine the amendment before publishing it to ensure that it has been adopted according to the Constitution’s provisions. Congress had authority under Article V to set a ratification date, which was not met. Therefore, the ratification deadline was effective, and it barred the plaintiffs’ late ratifications.

Because of this, the judge dismissed the lawsuit.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.