NASHVILLE - Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery has joined fellow Republican attorneys general in Alabama and three other states to block efforts to resurrect the decades-old Equal Rights Amendment and make it part of the U.S. Constitution.
In a news release, Slatery's office on Thursday lambasted what it called efforts to "illegally rewrite the U.S. Constitution" to ratify the proposed amendment.
The ERA provides that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."
Virginia last month became the 38th state to ratify the proposal which meets the U.S. Constitution's requirement that 3/4 of the now-50 states must approve an amendment before it becomes part of the Constitution.
The amendment was proposed to states by Congress in 1972. the Tennessee General Assembly ratified it in April 1972 but lawmakers rescinded their action two years later in April 1974.
Now, Tennessee along with Alabama, Louisiana, Nebraska and South Dakota are intervening in a lawsuit filed by Virginia, Illinois and Nevada. The latter three states sued the Archivist of the United States, who oversees the ratification process for constitutional amendments, in an effort to require he add the ERA to the Constitution.
Proponents argue ratification deadlines are unenforceable. They also argue that recission actions taken by Tennessee and others don't count.
The original ratification deadline was set for 1979 but later extended to 1982 by Congress, according to multiple news reports.
Slatery said in a statement "Tennessee was one of five states that rescinded its ratification before the 1979 deadline." He said Tennessee has an interest in ensuring that its vote to reject the ERA is given effect and "that the explicit timeframe set by Congress to ratify the ERA is enforced."
In February, the U.S. House voted to remove the deadline on ratification.
Earlier this month, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who as a private attorney championed women's rights, suggested the 1982 deadline should be considered binding, the Vox website recently reported.
"I would like to see a new beginning" for ERA ratification, the justice was quoted saying at a forum. "There's too much controversy about latecomers. Plus, a number of states have withdrawn their ratification. So if you count a latecomer on the plus side, how can you disregard states that said 'we've changed our minds?'"
In his statement, Slatery, an appointee of the five-member Tennessee Supreme Court, said "as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently stated, the ERA cannot become part of the Constitution unless it is 'put back in the political hopper and we start over again collecting the necessary states to ratify it.'
"Until that happens, Tennessee will continue to fight to protect the progress women have made and to defend the rule of law upon which we all depend," Slatery said.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.