1st Engrossment - 92nd Legislature (2021 - 2022) Posted on 03/07/2022 04:01pm
A resolution
relating to ratification of the proposed Equal
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to the United States
Constitution; memorializing Congress to remove the extra-textual time limit for
ratification of the
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by the states.
WHEREAS, the United States Constitution does not explicitly guarantee that all the
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it protects are held equally by all citizens without regard to sex and the only right it specifically
affirms to be
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for women and men is the right to vote in the 19th
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; and
WHEREAS, the 14th
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's
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protection clause has not been interpreted to
guarantee
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on the basis of sex in the same way the
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would, as
demonstrated by the fact that currently cases of sex discrimination receive only intermediate scrutiny
but should receive the highest level of strict judicial scrutiny, just as race discrimination does; and
WHEREAS, gender equality under the constitution continues to be timely in the United States
and worldwide, and a number of other nations have achieved constitutional gender equality; and
WHEREAS, the principle of gender equality is contained in the Charter of the United Nations,
the Universal Declaration of Human
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, and all subsequent major international human
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instruments, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW), which has been ratified by 187 other nations; and
WHEREAS, citizens of the United States have been seeking full constitutional equality on
the basis of sex since the
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was first introduced in 1923; and
WHEREAS, the
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was passed by Congress in 1972 and later ratified
by 38 of the 38 states necessary for inclusion of the
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into the constitution; and
WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution imposes no time limit for ratification
of amendments; and
WHEREAS, state
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ratification votes since 1972 must be considered
sufficiently contemporaneous, given that the Archivist of the United States certified the Madison
(27th)
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on May 18, 1992, once three-fourths of the states had ratified it, even though
that
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was passed by the first Congress of the United States and had a ratification period
lasting 203 years; and
WHEREAS, the extra-textual time limit for ratification of the
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is
in the proposing clause and is not a part of the
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that has already been ratified by 38
states; and
WHEREAS, Congress is empowered to alter time limits in the proposing clauses of
amendments and has done so once already for the
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, when it passed a time
extension on October 20, 1978; and
WHEREAS, the
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will finally ensure that all citizens will have
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under the United States Constitution, without regard to sex; and
WHEREAS, the
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was ratified by the Legislature of the State of
Minnesota on February 12, 1973; and
WHEREAS, the people of Minnesota are not willing to wait another 245 years for gender
equality; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of the State of Minnesota calls on the United States
Senate to enact Senate Joint Resolution 1 or House Joint Resolution 17, proposed at the 117th
Congress of the United States, or similar legislation, to remove the deadline for ratification of the
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the State of Minnesota calls on other
states to join in this action by passing the same or similar resolutions; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is directed
to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United States, the
President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the United
States House of Representatives, and Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in Congress.