http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...530-story.html
Illinois approves Equal Rights Amendment, 36 years after deadline
The Illinois House voted on the federal Equal Rights Amendment, more than 35 years after the deadline to ratify it passed. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Rick Pearson, Bill Lukitsch
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Whether the amendment can be added to the nation’s founding document is still a matter of debate among constitutional experts. Geoffrey Stone, a professor at the University of Chicago who specializes in constitutional law, said it’s unclear “there’s an obvious right or wrong answer.”
Some critics have also questioned the necessity of such an amendment, saying federal laws have already been passed to extend equal rights to women. Stone said ratification of the amendment “would make some difference in marginal cases where the law allows discrimination today” and “lock in” many of the federal protections women have gained over the decades.
“The main reason for adopting the Equal Rights Amendment today if one could legally, constitutionally do it would be the symbolic importance of it,” Stone said. “The rejection of it is in some ways insulting. So, the symbolic importance of it is to who we are as a nation — what our aspirations are, what our values are. That in itself is an important affirmation of who we are.”
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For further reading...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/u...-illinois.html
Is this an Amazon move?
All states left not voting for are in the south. Theoretically only one more state is needed to approve but the deadline is passed. This might just be symbolic in nature.
That said there are several conservative states that rescinded their vote so if it was really going to try to pass all hell would break loose...SCOTUS would at the end have to resolve this constitutional issue.
This is IMO no closer to passing but it could put a pox upon states that rejected it totally IMO.