SPRINGFIELD – One excuse some faux conservatives in the Illinois General Assembly gave to vote for the Equal Right Amendment was that it was meaningless and wouldn't be going anywhere, so why not support and give the Liberals one less vote to complain about?
The answer they should have heard is the Left never gives up – unlike many conservatives do. ERA being decades past the deadline to be amended to the US Constitution is a mere hurdle for Leftists. They intend to be successful.
Indeed, the ERA advocates in Illinois are placing pressure on US Congress members now to support an effort to remove the ERA's 1979 deadline – after all, the Left argues, isn't the Constitution and anything to do with it "living and breathing?"
The ERA Illinois Coalition is ignoring common sense. Here's what they're doing now:
And here's the list of US Congressman they're calling to come on board:
Prolife Democrat Dan Lipinski, and Prolife Republicans Peter Roskam, Mike Bost, Rodney Davis, John Shimkus, Randy Hultgren, Adam Kinzinger, Darin LaHood.
Their effort will not change the ERA, the late Phyllis Schlafly's son Andy told Illinois Review Friday. Mrs. Schlafly passed away two years ago after decades of successfully resisting the ERA nationwide.
"A letter by congressmen is utterly meaningless and without any legal effect," Schlafly said via email. "No court would give any legal significance to a letter by congressmen to extend the deadline of ERA."
Schlafly, an attorney, said the only legal authority of Congress with respect to proposed specific amendments to the Constitution is if the House and Senate pass the proposed amendment by a 2/3rds supermajority.
"No such supermajority with respect to ERA is plausible at this point, given how ERA imposes taxpayer-funded abortion," Schlafly said. "Moreover, the ERA ratification process would need to restart with zero States because the prior ERA was passed by States based on the original 1979 deadline."
Someone should tell the ERA Illinois Coalition.
