WASHINGTON DC – The Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel released an opinion that definitively invalidates the movement to revive the 40-year-expired Equal Rights Amendment. In short, as OLC writes in their opinion: "Congress may not revive a proposed amendment after a deadline for its ratification has expired."
The declaration pleased the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, a group founded after longtime ERA opponent Phyllis Schlafly passed away in 2017.
After decades of fighting the constitutional amendment's ratification state by state, a renewed effort for the ERA came alive when the Illinois General Assembly passed the amendment, setting the course for a few more states to consider the amendment.
Over the last year, Phyllis Schlafly Eagles said they have worked to "expose pro-ERA bias and trickery from Archivist of the United States David Ferriero." They said Wednesday their long paper trail of FOIA requests and demands for impartiality lead to his request of this DOJ's Legal Counsel opinion.
"Phyllis Schlafly and her Eagles have been tireless in fighting ERA since 1972," said Ed Martin, president of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles. "The ERA ratification deadline expired in 1979 (and again in 1982). We have long fought unconstitutional attempts to revive the ratification process. The radical left has tried every trick in the book to subvert the will of the states but their trickery is no match for truth.
"Now as Nancy Pelosi's out-of-control House hits the gas on reviving ERA, OLC is backing our long-held position and slamming the door on these hijinks. The matter is closed. America knows ERA is bad for our nation and our Constitution. They have soundly rejected it over and over again."
