Sometimes, the most important news happens too far in the background to make reverberations befitting its importance. Concepts like judicial decisions often fit this mold as changes that seem incremental in the moment but explode into importance as time goes on. Against all the odds, Idaho might be right at the center of a political firestorm because of some shady politics from three and a half decades ago.
We may have experienced something similar in the early days of 2020. On Jan. 15, the Virginia state Legislature ratified their version of the Equal Rights Amendment, becoming the 38th state to ratify the ERA. Despite being first passed by Congress for approval by the states back in 1972 with an ambiguous deadline for ratification in 1979, Virginia’s decision brings forth new questions for Americans in general and Idahoans more specifically.
For those that are unfamiliar, the ERA is a piece of legislation that has labored through seemingly every challenge possible en route to legitimacy, beginning with its introduction to Congress three years after the passing of the 19th Amendment, way back in 1923. The basic summary of the amendment is that it would rectify any sex discrimination baked into the Constitution, essentially removing any excuse to put different standards on the sexes before the law.
Idaho was the fifth state to pass, what would have been the 27th Amendment and in emphatic fashion. Of the 109 votes cast between Idaho’s congressional members cast in favor of ratification. Then, as it so often does in Idaho politics, the other shoe dropped in favor of a more nonsensical approach to lawmaking.
The second half of the ERA’s story lies with one of the most impactful and loathsome figures in recent American history: Phyllis Schlafly. Her anti-feminist work in spearheading programs like the Eagle Forum & STOP ERA aimed at cementing what we would recognize today as hyper-conservative ideals regarding the family, women’s rights, abortion and many others. Upon her arrival on the national scene in the early ‘70s, the ERA had achieved ratification in 28 of the 38 necessary states. Only seven more would ratify it and five would attempt to rescind their ratification as Schlafly’s influence tapped into impressionable legislatures. More than a handful of historians would flatly stated that Schlafly is the chief reason as to why we still lag behind most developed countries in definitively equal rights.
ICYMI: https://www.uiargonaut.com/2020/01/22/14-million-deficit-largely-resolved/
Idaho, of course, was one of the five states to make an attempt at rescinding the ERA, nearly five years after its ratification. Despite only a small shift in the legislature’s composition (majority Republican to slightly larger majority Republican), the vote achieved a supermajority in the state House and passed by a single vote in the state Senate.
In spite of all this, there is no stipulation in the Constitution allowing or denying the un-ratification of constitutional amendments, casting shadows on the legal viability of such a move. Now that we may potentially have the necessary conditions to finish something so prolonged, Idaho will find itself in the spotlight once again.
Should the ERA continue to gain traction, there wouldn’t have to be a discussion of whether or not states can rescind ratification. If pressed on the cowardice that occurred in 1977, I would hope that Idaho, along with legislatures in Tennessee, South Dakota, Kentucky and Nebraska, would rectify historical black eyes and reassure their support for the ERA. Our country is laughably behind European countries like Norway & Sweden which legally assured equality between men and women more than 40 years ago.
There haven’t been many days to be proud of our legislature in the recent past and I grant that Idaho’s Legislature is more sluggish than most. In spite of these facts, the nearly 50-year fight for the ERA is something that our legislature can still get on the right side of history for.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected]