LANSING, Mich., March 22, 2023 — Speaker Pro Tem Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) introduced House Concurrent Resolution 3 today, which was passed by the House and calls on the Archivist of the United States to certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It also calls on Congress to declare the Equal Rights Amendment as ratified.
“Here we are in 2023, and the Constitution of the United States still fails to guarantee female citizens of this country equal rights and equal justice,” Pohutsky said. “Nearly 50 years ago, Michigan took the bold step to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Today’s resolution is a reminder that our work is not yet done when it comes to our commitment that all people — regardless of their gender — should share equally in the rights they deserve, and that Congress still needs to ratify the ERA.”
The Equal Rights Amendment passed through both chambers in Congress on March 22, 1972, sending the ERA to state legislatures for their ratification. Michigan ratified the ERA on May 22, 1972, but the amendment failed to meet the requisite number of state ratifications (38) by Congress’ deadline of June 30, 1982, so it was not adopted as a Constitutional amendment. However, with the recent ratifications of the ERA by Nevada in 2017, Illinois in 2018 and Virginia in 2020, the number of states needed for certification of the ERA to become the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has now been reached.
Additionally, a 2023 decision of the D.C. Circuit Court in Illinois v. Ferriero states that while the archivist’s certification of the ERA is not required to make it legally effective as part of the Constitution, it would send a powerful signal that the amendment should be recognized as having been adopted.