RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The Equal Rights Amendment was adopted by United States Congress on March 22,1972 and sent to the states for ratification; and
WHEREAS, In order to be added to the United States Constitution, the Equal Rights Amendment required approval by legislatures in three-fourths (38) of the 50 states; and
WHEREAS, The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was the most highly publicized and debated constitutional amendment for, most of the 1970s and early 1980s; and
WHEREAS, First submitted by Congress to the states for ratification on March 22, 1972, it failed to be ratified by its final deadline of June 30,1982; and
WHEREAS, Since 1995 ERA supporters have advocated for passage of ERA ratification bills in a number of the 15 so-called "unratified" states; and
WHEREAS, Ratification bills have been introduced in one or more legislative sessions in 12 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and Virginia; and
WHEREAS, The Equal Rights Amendment seeks to provide a fundamental legal remedy against sex discrimination for both women and men and it would guarantee that the rights affirmed by the U.S. Constitution are held equally by all citizens without regard to their sex; 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, On March 22, 2017, 45 years to the day after Congress passed the amendment and sent it to the states for ratification, Nevada became the 36th state to ratify the ERA and in 2017 ERA bills have also been introduced in the legislatures of Illinois, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia; and
WHEREAS, In 1982 the Illinois General Assembly failed to approve the Equal Rights Amendment, but on April 11, 2018, nearly 36 years later, the Illinois Senate voted 43-12 to approve the Equal Rights Amendment, leaving the fate of the bill...
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