Trump Administration Casts Doubt on Women's Rights Amendment Push

The Trump administration on Wednesday poured cold water on a new effort to ratify a decades-old proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ensure women have equal rights to men.

The U.S. Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued a legal opinion saying it was too late for additional states to sign on to the push started in 1972 that led to 35 states backing it, three short of the required number.

The proposed Equal Rights Amendment, which gained traction with the rise of the feminist movement, states in part: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex."

Under the Constitution, 38 states and both the House of Representatives and the Senate have to approve a proposed amendment for it for it to be formally adopted.

The House and Senate both supported the measure in 1972 but set a seven-year deadline, later extended until 1982, for it to be ratified.

Recently, there's been a new effort to get three additional states to sign on. Nevada did so in 2017 and Illinois followed suit in 2018. Now, Virginia could, under the theory proposed by supporters of the amendment, become the 38th state as it is expected to vote this year.

The Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee separately voted in November to approve a measure that would retroactively remove the ratification deadline.

The opinion could provide legal ammunition for the amendment's opponents as the debate plays out at the state level and in Congress.

Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel wrote in the opinion that while Congress "had the constitutional authority" to set the deadline, it cannot now reopen the issue.

"Congress may not revive a proposed amendment after the deadline has expired," he wrote.

"Should the people of the United States wish to adopt the ERA as part of the Constitution, then the appropriate path is for Congress ... to propose that amendment once more," Engel added.

The Justice Department's input was requested by the National Archives and Records Administration, which has a role in implementing ratification.