Repost from Richmond Times.
Virginia has formally withdrawn from a federal lawsuit that seeks to certify the Equal Rights Amendment into the U.S. Constitution, a move driven by the state’s new attorney general, Republican Jason Miyares.
Miyares’ decision comes two years after Virginia, under Democratic control of both the House and Senate, became the 38th and final state needed to ratify the ERA .
Virginia’s vote — which meant the required three-fourths of states had ratified the ERA — advanced a national effort to include the amendment in the Constitution, one now stalled by legal questions about whether ratification by the states came too late, given Congress’ 1982 deadline.
The amendment says: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
Miyares’ office on Friday pointed to several legal opinions arguing that Virginia’s ratification had come too late, rendering it null.