California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 18

Introduced by Assembly Member Skinner

April 16, 2013

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 18—Relative to equal rights.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AJR 18, as introduced, Skinner. Equality of rights for men and women.

This measure would urge the Congress of the United States to pass Senate Joint Resolution No. 10, an amendment to the Constitution of the United States that is subject to ratification by the legislatures of 3⁄4 of the states, to ensure 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.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The traditional Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
ratification bill has been introduced as Senate Joint Resolution No.
10 in the 113th Congress of the United States with 10 cosponsors
from the United States Senate on March 5, 2013; and

WHEREAS, The ERA was first written by Alice Paul, the head
of the National Woman’s Party, and has been introduced in every
Congress of the United States since 1923 in order to guarantee that
the rights affirmed by the United States Constitution are held
equally by all citizens without regard to sex; and

WHEREAS, The ERA would provide a fundamental legal
remedy against sex discrimination for both women and men; and

WHEREAS, The ERA would clarify the legal status of sex
discrimination for the courts, where decisions still deal
inconsistently with such claims; and

WHEREAS, The ERA would make “sex” a suspect
classification, as race currently is, so that governmental actions
that treat males and females differently as a class would have to
bear a necessary relation to a compelling state interest in order to
be upheld as constitutional; and

WHEREAS, The ERA was first passed by Congress in 1972
and was sent to the states for ratification, but was three votes shy
of the 38-state requirement for ratification by the June 30, 1982,
deadline; and

WHEREAS, The ERA has been reintroduced in Congress each
year since 1982 and has seen legislative activity in 8 of the 15
unratified states; and

WHEREAS, The first, and still the only, right that the United
States Constitution specifically affirms to be equal for women and
men is the right to vote under the 19th Amendment, and it was
ratified by the states in 1920; and

WHEREAS, The 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause
has never been interpreted to protect against sex discrimination in
the same way that the ERA would; and

WHEREAS, In September 2010, Supreme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia said he does not believe that the United States Constitution,
specifically the 14th Amendment, protects against sex
discrimination; and

WHEREAS, In the cases of Craig v. Boren (1976) and United
States v. Virginia (1996), the United States Supreme Court declined
to elevate sex discrimination claims to the strict scrutiny standard
of review that the 14th Amendment requires for certain suspect
classifications such as race, religion, and national origin; and

WHEREAS, The ERA has not been ratified in 15 states
including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia; and

WHEREAS, The state constitutions of Alaska, California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia,
Washington, and Wyoming all provide guarantees of equal rights
on the basis of sex; and

WHEREAS, Without the addition of the ERA to the United
States Constitution, legislation and case law that has resulted in
extraordinary progress for women has the potential to be ignored,
weakened, or reversed. By a simple majority in the Congress of
the United States, legislation can be amended or repealed, the
presidential administration can weakly enforce these laws, and the
United States Supreme Court can continue to use intermediate
scrutiny when reviewing cases concerning gender; and

WHEREAS, It is vital that we have a declaration of gender
equality outlined in the United States Constitution; now, therefore,
be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature requests the Congress of
the United States to pass Senate Joint Resolution No. 10, an
amendment to the Constitution of the United States that is subject
to ratification by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states, to
ensure 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;
and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, and to the Members of the United States Congress.