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What just happened?

 

On January 17, 2025, President Biden gave notice to the nation that the Equal Rights Amendment was law and in force as the 28th Amendment. In a struggle that has lasted 101 years, these words should now be considered part of the U.S. Constitution.

 

“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”  

 

It is remarkable that it took so long to affirm those rights for American women, when most other developed nations have prohibited sex discrimination for decades. To a reader of the U.S. Constitution's Article V, the ERA completed the last of the requirements in 2020, when Virginia, the 38th state, ratified. The Amendment, by law, became effective two years later, in January of 2022. President Biden’s announcement was the last required step, for the word to be put out to the states that the amendment process was complete.

 

Court challenges following the addition of any amendment are to be expected and future cases will test the validity and effects of the Equal Rights Amendment. That has been the case with other amendments in our history. The issue of the time limit placed on the Amendment’s ratification, placed there by several committee members who opposed it, will be reconsidered. Attempted retractions of ratification by several states will also be revisited. The American Bar Association’s 2024 opinion on the validity of the 28th Amendment and the legal opinion of two prominent constitutional lawyers address those issues. Their legal consensus is that both the time limit and the attempted rescissions are not constitutionally valid. What is also to be expected is the ongoing campaign by those (who are in the minority) who do not support equal constitutional rights for women – to undo the 28th Amendment.

 

Having worked so hard to assure fundamental rights by enacting the ERA, our work ahead is to defend those rights from predictable future attacks. We can celebrate now but we are watchful for how we must keep fighting at our state level, when the future of the federal ERA is still uncertain with the new administration and the current Supreme Court.

 

What’s next?

 

The 28th Amendment prohibits sex discrimination and now it is time for the states to be sure that their state constitutions are also clear on that point. Twenty-eight states now have equality provisions in their state constitutions, but Maine’s constitution does not yet explicitly prohibit sex discrimination. That’s what comes next.

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Maine’s state constitution (1820) has been amended 177 times. In the past four legislative sessions, equality amendments have been proposed but haven’t reached the 2/3 margin of votes in both houses of the legislature required for constitutional amendments in Maine. The 2025 legislature will be considering a new Resolution proposing a constitutional amendment. But this time is different. There is a growing awareness of the need to assure protections at the highest level and there is a growing movement to support the amendment that would do that - the Equality Amendment.

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The most recent states to add state ERAs, Nevada in 2022 and New York in 2024, broadened the language for state ERAs from the ‘on account of sex’ wording of the federal amendment. These latest amendments include groups historically connected with discriminatory acts, in addition to and often overlapping with sex: by race, religion, age and national origin. State constitutions are all different but what they have in common is the right to be more specific in their provisions. That’s what we can do in Maine.

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Maine ERA for All is the campaign. Maine Women’s Lobby is the campaign organizer, building a growing coalition of individuals and organizations, gaining supporters by explaining the issues, and working with our newly elected legislators. There is a groundswell of support in our new legislature for an Equality Amendment! It is the duty of our legislature to assure their constituents of their fair legal rights and to give Mainers the chance to amend their Constitution to be clear about those rights. Our job as citizens is to make sure our legislators know of our support of equal rights for everyone! It must be a bi-partisan effort to reach a 2/3 majority.​​​

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