Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

SECOND REGULAR SESSION
                     HOUSE CONCURRENT
                      RESOLUTION NO. 32
                             102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
                            INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE BURNETT.
    4553H.01I                                                      DANA RADEMAN MILLER, Chief Clerk



           WHEREAS, in 1972, the Ninety-second Congress of the United States of America, at
 2 its Second Session, in both houses, by a constitutional majority of two-thirds, adopted the
 3 following proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States of America:
 4
 5 "JOINT RESOLUTION RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND
 6 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED (TWO-
 7 THIRDS OF EACH HOUSE CONCURRING THEREIN), That the following article is
 8 proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all
 9 intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-
10 fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission by the
11 Congress:
12
13 ARTICLE —
14
15 Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United
16 States or by any State on account of sex.
17
18 Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the
19 provisions of this article.
20
21 Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification."; and
22
23         WHEREAS, Article V of the Constitution of the United States sets forth a two-step
24 amending procedure; and
25
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26          WHEREAS, the first step of the Article V amending procedure is proposal of an
27   amendment either by two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress or by a convention called by
28   application of two-thirds of the States; and
29
30            WHEREAS, the second and final step of the Article V amending procedure is
31   ratification of an amendment by three-fourths of the States; and
32
33           WHEREAS, the Constitution of the United States does not limit the time for States to
34   ratify an amendment; and
35
36           WHEREAS, the Constitution of the United States does not grant Congress the
37   unilateral authority to limit the time for States to ratify amendments; and
38
39           WHEREAS, a time limit on State ratifications of amendments is a substantive change
40   to the Constitution of the United States; and
41
42           WHEREAS, to have full force and effect, any substantive change to the Constitution
43   of the United States such as a time limit on ratification must be within the text of an
44   amendment, where it can also be approved by states as part of each of the two steps of the
45   Article V amending procedure– a proposal step and a ratification step; and
46
47           WHEREAS, in the proposal step for the Equal Rights Amendment the time limit on
48   State ratifications was only in the preamble section of the resolution by Congress and not
49   within the text of the amendment presented to states for state approval; and
50
51          WHEREAS, in the ratification step, the States ratified only the text of the Equal
52   Rights Amendment; and
53
54          WHEREAS, a time limit was only approved by Congress in 1972, but not
55   subsequently approved by the states and is thus, without force or effect; and
56
57           WHEREAS, in comparison, in 1978, two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress
58   passed the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, and included a timeline within
59   the text of the Amendment offered to states for ratification; and
60
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61           WHEREAS, the time limit for the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment
62   ended before completion of the second and final step of ratification of the amendment by
63   three-fourths of the States; and
64
65          WHEREAS, because the time limit was within the text of the District of Columbia
66   Voting Rights Amendment, that time limit had full force and effect and that amendment
67   expired in 1985; and
68
69           WHEREAS, in comparison, the text of the 21st and 22nd Amendments both include a
70   timeline within the text of each amendment, and such timelines were ratified by three-fourths
71   of the states within the agreed timeline; and
72
73          WHEREAS, in 1789, by two-thirds vote of each house of our First Congress, the so-
74   called Madison Amendment relating to compensation of members of Congress completed the
75   proposal step of Article V; and
76
77            WHEREAS, approximately 203 years later, the Madison Amendment completed the
78   ratification step of Article V through ratification by three-fourths of the States; and
79
80         WHEREAS, in 1992, having met the strict two-step requirements of Article V, the
81   Madison Amendment was published by the Archivist during the Administration of President
82   George H.W. Bush as our 27th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and
83
84         WHEREAS, following publication of the Madison Amendment, Congress affirmed
85   the Madison Amendment as our 27th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States;
86   and
87
88          WHEREAS, as of January 27, 2020, three-fourths of the States have ratified the
89   Equal Rights Amendment; and
90
91           WHEREAS, unlike the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, the Equal
92   Rights Amendment does not have a time limit in its text where it would be of full force and
93   effect; and
94
95          WHEREAS, in contrast to the Madison Amendment, which took 203 years to ratify,
96   the Equal Rights Amendment took a mere 48 years to ratify; and
97
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 98            WHEREAS, the text of Article V of the Constitution gives the States the power of
 99   ratification, not rescission; and
100
101            WHEREAS, Samuel Johnson’s dictionary of 1755 defines “ratify” as “to confirm; to
102   settle”; and
103
104           WHEREAS, Bouvier’s Law Dictionary of 1856, considered to be the first American
105   legal dictionary, states that a ratification once done, “cannot be revoked or recalled”; and
106
107           WHEREAS, James Madison wrote in a July 20, 1788 letter to Alexander Hamilton
108   that ratification is “in toto and for ever”; and
109
110          WHEREAS, the various attempts throughout history to rescind the ratifications of the
111   Constitution of the United States or its amendments, including the 14th, 15th, and 19th
112   Amendments, have never been honored; and
113
114           WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment now meets the strict requirements of
115   Article V of our Constitution of the United States to be added as our 28th Amendment:
116
117          NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the House of
118   Representatives of the One Hundred Second General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the
119   Senate concurring therein, hereby urge the administration of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. to
120   publish without delay the Equal Rights Amendment as our 28th Amendment to the
121   Constitution of the United States; and
122
123          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the General Assembly urges the Congress of
124   the United States to pass a joint resolution affirming the Equal Rights Amendment as our 28th
125   Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and
126
127           BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that General Assembly calls on other States to join
128   in this action by passing the same or similar resolutions; and
129
130          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of
131   Representatives be instructed to prepare a properly inscribed copy of this resolution for the
 HCR 32                                         5

132 President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice President Kamala Harris, the Missouri Congressional
133 delegation, and the Archivist of the United States.
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