Bill Text: CA SJR12 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Chaptered

California Senate Joint Resolution 12 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Equal Rights Amendment.

Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 67-4-1)

Status: (Passed) 2022-08-19 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Res. Chapter 113, Statutes of 2022. [SJR12 Detail]

Download: California-2021-SJR12-Chaptered.html

Senate Joint Resolution No. 12

CHAPTER 113

Relative to the Equal Rights Amendment.

[ Filed with Secretary of State August 19, 2022. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SJR 12, Skinner. Equal Rights Amendment.

This measure would urge the Congress of the United States to pass House Resolution 891, resolving that the requirements have been met to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and that it shall now be known as the “Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.”

Fiscal Committee: NO

WHEREAS, The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was first passed by Congress in 1972 and was sent to the states for ratification; and

WHEREAS, The ERA guarantees “[e]quality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”; and

WHEREAS, The adoption of the ERA will help to advance gender justice for women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals; and

WHEREAS, The ERA authorizes Congress to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions the ERA; and

WHEREAS, The ERA states that the amendment will take effect two years after the last constitutionally necessary state ratification occurs; and

WHEREAS, On January 27, 2020, Virginia became the 38th and final state needed to ratify the ERA, which has been ratified by the necessary three-fourths of states; and

WHEREAS, The Archivist of the United States performs a statutory and ministerial role with respect to certifying the ratification of amendments to the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, As of this date, the Archivist has not certified the amendment; and

WHEREAS, No time limit exists within the text of the proposed amendment that was ratified by more than three-fourths of the states; and

WHEREAS, Women, girls, and gender-expansive people across the country are experiencing declining access to health, wealth, and opportunity, and increasing incidences of poverty and violence; and

WHEREAS, The ERA was first written by Alice Paul, the head of the National Woman’s Party, in order to guarantee that the rights affirmed by the United States Constitution are held equally by all citizens without regard to sex; and

WHEREAS, The ERA would provide a fundamental legal remedy against sex discrimination; and

WHEREAS, The ERA would clarify the legal status of sex discrimination for the courts, where decisions still deal inconsistently with such claims; and

WHEREAS, California was among the first states to ratify the ERA in 1972; and

WHEREAS, The first, and still the only, right that the United States Constitution specifically affirms to be equal for women and men is the right to vote under the 19th Amendment, that was ratified by the states in 1920; and

WHEREAS, The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States has never been interpreted to protect against sex discrimination in the same way that the ERA would; and

WHEREAS, In September 2010, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said he did not believe that the United States Constitution, specifically the 14th Amendment, protects against sex discrimination; and

WHEREAS, The ERA has not been ratified in 12 states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah; and

WHEREAS, In 1868, the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution despite two states purporting to rescind their ratification; and

WHEREAS, The state constitutions of 26 states, including Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming, provide either inclusive or partial guarantees of equal rights on the basis of sex; and

WHEREAS, Without the addition of the ERA to the United States Constitution, legislation and case law that has resulted in extraordinary progress for women has the potential to be ignored, weakened, or reversed. Congress can amend or repeal legislation advancing equality with a simple majority vote, the presidential administration can weakly enforce these laws, and the United States Supreme Court can continue to use intermediate scrutiny when reviewing cases concerning gender; and

WHEREAS, It is vital that the Constitutional gender equality rights be upheld now that the ERA has been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

WHEREAS, The Archivist of the United States has a statutory and ministerial duty to certify that a proposed amendment to the Constitution is valid and has become part of the Constitution once it is ratified by more than three-fourths of the states; and

WHEREAS, Section 3 of the Equal Rights Amendment states that the amendment shall take effect two years after the last constitutionally necessary state ratification occurs, which was January 27, 2020; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature requests the Congress of the United States to pass House Resolution 891, resolving that the requirements have been met to ratify the ERA and that it shall now be known as the “Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the Constitution”; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the President and the Vice President of the United States, and to the Members of the United States Congress.