Since not enough states ratified the Equal Rights Amendment before its deadline, said the talk-show guest in January 1986, “it now has to start the process over again, . . . be passed by the House and Senate and go through all of the states’ ratification process.”
The show was Oprah, and the guest was feminist leader Gloria Steinem.
Steinem said what everyone knew: The ERA proposed by Congress in 1972 had expired. ERA supporters today, however, claim that Steinem was wrong—that the 1972 ERA is not only still alive, but that Congress can put it in the Constitution simply by recognizing its ratification.
Wrong. Steinem was right: The 1972 ERA is dead.
Article V of the Constitution gives Congress the power to propose constitutional amendments and to require that states ratify them either through their legislatures or by conventions. The Supreme Court unanimously…
