Equal Rights Amendment Backers Sue to Void Deadline (1)

The Equal Rights Amendment should be fully ratified as soon as one more state—likely Virginia—approves it, ERA advocates argued in a federal lawsuit filed Jan. 7.

The lawsuit from the group Equal Means Equal seeks to void a 1979 deadline that Congress set for states to ratify the amendment.

If successful, the ERA would become the 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution and provide a broad guarantee of equal rights under the law regardless of sex, potentially strengthening anti-bias protections for women. Opponents—including a handful of state attorneys general who recently sued to block the ERA—argue the amendment is unnecessary ...