DOJ Says Virginia’s Push for Equal Rights Amendment Futile (1)

The Virginia General Assembly’s new Democratic leadership has opened the legislature’s session with a pledge to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment. But a U.S. Justice Department official says in a newly released legal opinion that those efforts are in vain, as a 1979 ratification deadline set by the U.S. Congress has passed.

The ERA resolution “has expired and is no longer pending before the States,” according to Steven A. Engel, assistant attorney general with the Office of Legal Council. That deadline is binding and Congress has to restart the process, Engel said in the memo.

Engel’s legal guidance was issued ...