Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

                                    SECOND REGULAR SESSION
         House Concurrent Resolution No. 56
                                99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
                              INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE MORGAN.
    4794H.01I                                                               D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk


                                               AN ACT
    Relating to the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.


    Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

            WHEREAS, three years after women won the right to vote, the Equal Rights
 2 Amendment to the United States Constitution, authored by Alice Paul, head of the National
 3 Women's Party, was introduced in Congress by Senator Curtis and Representative Anthony, both
 4 Republicans; and
 5
 6          WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution passed the
 7 United States Senate and then the United States House of Representatives, and on March 22,
 8 1972, the proposed Amendment to the United States Constitution was sent to the states for
 9 ratification; and
10
11          WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution states:
12
13          "Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United
14 States or by any state on account of sex.
15          Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the
16 provisions of this article.
17          Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification."; and
18
19          WHEREAS, Congress placed a deadline of June 30, 1982, on the ratification process
20 and thirty-five states ratified the proposed Amendment before the deadline; and
21
22          WHEREAS, Congress may not have the constitutional authority to place a deadline on
23 the ratification process; and
24
HCR 56                                             2

25           WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution allows the General Assembly
26   of the State of Missouri to ratify this proposed Amendment to the Constitution of the United
27   States; and
28
29           WHEREAS, the General Assembly of the State of Missouri finds that the proposed
30   Amendment is meaningful and needed as part of the United States Constitution and that the
31   present political, social, and economic conditions are the same as or even more demanding today
32   than they were when the proposed Amendment was first submitted for adoption:
33
34          NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the House of
35   Representatives of the Ninety-ninth General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the Senate
36   concurring therein, hereby ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution;
37   and
38
39          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of
40   Representatives be instructed to prepare a properly inscribed copy of this resolution for the
41   Archivist of the United States, Washington, D.C.; the Vice President of the United States; the
42   Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; and each member of the Missouri
43   Congressional Delegation with request that it be printed in the Congressional Record.
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