New efforts to pass the ERA

Activists and some Congressmen are reviving an effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA failed to get the 3/4 state votes for ratification back in 1982, but now there are those who believe that the time is ripe to try again. They're not sure whether the votes for ratification from the 1970s are still viable now or whether the Amendment would have to be voted all over again. However, they're introducing the Amendment again in Congress just to be sure.

In light of how courts have interpreted all sorts of aspects of the Constitution in ways that the original authors would never have dreamed of, it's hard to predict how the ERA would be interpreted by future judges should it become the 28th Amendment. Critics allege that the ERA would mandate that women have to register for the draft and serve in combat. They also say that there are other provisions in law to protect women such as the Fourteenth Amendment and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But that is not enough for some feminists who want to win today the battle that they lost 25 years ago.