Three-state Strategy

The National Council of Women's Organizations supports both the reintroduction of the Equal Rights Amendment in Congress and the "three-state strategy" for ERA ratification.

The three-state strategy is based on the legal analysis in "The Equal Rights Amendment: Why the ERA Remains Legally Viable and Properly Before the States," by Allison Held, Sheryl Herndon, and Danielle Stager, published in the Spring 1997 issue of William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law. 

This strategy is based on the fact that the "Madison Amendment," concerning Congressional pay raises, became the 27th Amendment to the Constitution in 1992, after a ratification period of 203 years. Therefore, the ERA's ratification period of less than three decades would surely meet the "reasonable" and "sufficiently contemporaneous" standards required by several Supreme Court decisions. Time limits were not imposed on amendments before 1917 (beginning with the 18th Amendment, Prohibition), and the 19th Amendment affirming women's right to vote had no time limit. Congress demonstrated its belief that it may alter a time limit in a proposing clause by extending the original ERA deadline. Thus it is likely that Congress has the power to adjust or repeal the previous time limit on the ERA, determine whether state ratifications subsequent to 1982 are valid, and accept the ERA as part of the Constitution after three more states ratify. The 35 existing ratifications should stand because precedent regarding state rescissions shows that such actions have not been accepted as valid.

An analysis by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress bears on the question.

The NCWO also encourages the introduction and passage of ERA ratification bills in the 15 states which have not yet ratified it.  For an update on the status of ratification bills in the unratified states, click here.