Should the 2026 mid-term elections result in a pro-ERA Congress in both the House and Senate, ERA NOW and other supporting groups will take immediate actions starting in November. We will demand that the ERA Joint Resolution be reintroduced in the first 100 days of the upcoming 120th Congress (convening in January 2027).

After the Joint Resolution is introduced early in January, hearings must be held in the Judiciary Committees of the House and Senate. Congressional leadership must make adoption of the ERA Joint Resolution a priority using whatever procedures necessary for the ERA to become the 28th Amendment.

Helping us reach 1 million people who will show their support for Congressional action that is needed more than ever before. Here’s why:

As background:

After Virginia’s ratification in January 2020, the needed 38th state for ratification, a Congressional ERA Joint Resolution was introduced to recognize the ERA as valid as a way to eliminate any disputes related to the arbitrary time limit in the nonbinding resolving clause included when Congress passed the ERA in 1972. This is the purpose of Sign4ERA – a pro-ERA Congress needs to recognize the ERA NOW. Senators and House Members need to know the urgency of a federal Equal Rights Amendment.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that notwithstanding any time limit contained in House Joint Resolution 208, 92nd Congress, as agreed to in the Senate on March 22, 1972, the article of amendment proposed to the States in that joint resolution is valid to all intents and purposes as part of the United States Constitution having been ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several States

Under a Democratic House led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the ERA Joint Resolution was passed by the House in February 2020 in the 116th Congress, one month after Virginia’s ratification. The House passed it again in March 2021 in the 117th Congress; however, the Democratic-controlled Senate never brought the ERA to a vote in either session. In the following 118th Congress, when the Republicans controlled the House, the Senate acted in April 2023, winning a majority 51-47 but could not secure the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. A discharge petition was filed in the House and signed by 214 Members but fell short of the 218 needed to trigger a vote.

All 218 Democratic House members and one Republican member currently are co-sponsors of the ERA Joint Resolution in this 119th Congress. However, the Republican leaders who control the House and Senate are opposed to the ERA and will not schedule a vote.

President Biden declared the ERA “the law of the land,” but the Archivist did not certify the ERA as in the Constitution, thus creating confusion about its status. And the American Bar Association has rightfully concluded that the Constitution does not limit the time for state ratifications; deadlines on the amending process are inherently unconstitutional; and the seven-year time limit was not included in the version of the amendment that the states passed during the ERA ratification process.

However, a statement by the National Archivist in 2024 read: At this time, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) cannot be certified as part of the Constitution due to established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions. In 2020 and again in 2022, the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice affirmed that the ratification deadline established by Congress for the ERA is valid and enforceable. The OLC concluded that extending or removing the deadline requires new action by Congress or the courts.

Under Article V of the Constitution, it is the role of Congress and the States to amend the Constitution; the President and Courts have no role in the amending process. A president cannot veto the ERA Joint Resolution.

Why ERA, Why NOW

There is an urgency to recognize the ERA because it is needed more than ever to stop further rollbacks. Without the ERA, Congress can amend or repeal existing laws, including Title VII barring sex discrimination in employment, educational safeguards of Title IX, VAWA, the Equal Credit Act, and more. The Executive Branch can stop enforcing laws and reverse Executive Orders, as is being done under the Trump Administration.

Under the ERA, sex would be a suspect classification and claims of discrimination would be subject to strict judicial scrutiny resulting in more desirable court decisions on pay equity, sexual violence, reproductive justice, gender biases, and more. Today, such claims are subject only to a lesser intermediate scrutiny.

Without the ERA, courts can interpret laws narrowly, strip away any effectiveness or reverse long standing precedents as was done when the Supreme Court reversed Roe in the Dobbs decision; and without an ERA Joint Resolution, the Supreme Court could rule the ratification process must begin again with a 2/3rds vote in Congress and ratification by 3/4ths of the States.

Say NO to the Supreme Court and YES to Congress. Ask friends and families to join the national ERA Petition, sign4ERA.org, and help us with any donation – both money and volunteer time.