In Support of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
Adopted at the in 2019
WHEREAS, the ERA is a tool to ensure the full equality of people of any sex under the law in the United States of America, which could ensure that laws that perpetuate sex discrimination are met with the strictest judicial scrutiny; and
WHEREAS, women's labor, both paid and unpaid, has been fundamental to the growth and development of our cities, and should be valued equally with men's; and
WHEREAS, national events in recent years have heightened our awareness of the systemic barriers that women face in all spheres of life, including gender-based violence, sexual harassment in the workplace, and underrepresentation in decision-making positions across all sectors, which have persisted since the very first introduction of the ERA in 1923; and
WHEREAS, the proposed ERA represents nearly a century of women's tireless organizing and activism in pursuit of legal equality enshrined in the Constitution of the United States; and
WHEREAS, women's pursuit of legal recognition in the United States of America began in the nation's earliest days, when our founding mother Abigail Adams advised John Adams to "remember the ladies;" and
WHEREAS, the 2019 Annual Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors is being held in Hawaii, which was the first state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment; and
WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment has been ratified by 37 of the 38 states necessary to become a constitutional amendment; and
WHEREAS, that Congress has previously extended the ERA's ratification deadline, demonstrating that Congress has the authority to again modify the deadline to ensure the ERA's full ratification; and
WHEREAS, the ratification deadline originally set for the ERA by the Congress is placed within the proposing clause of the ERA, and was not part of the amendment itself; and
WHEREAS, the plain language of the United States Constitution and the precedent of the ratification of the 14th Amendment render any rescission of a ratification of a Constitutional Amendment after ratification has properly taken place a legal nullity,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors believes the Equal Rights Amendment to be legally viable and properly before the states; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors pledges to support the Equal Rights Amendment and play an active role in ensuring its full ratification.