Senate Bill sb0204

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    Florida Senate - 2006                                  SCR 204

    By Senator Margolis





    35-336-06

  1                   Senate Concurrent Resolution

  2         A concurrent resolution ratifying the proposed

  3         amendment to the Constitution of the United

  4         States relating to equal rights for men and

  5         women.

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  7         WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment was first

  8  introduced in Congress in 1923 and was filed every session

  9  thereafter from 1923 to 1972, and

10         WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment was finally

11  approved by Congress in 1972 and sent to the states for

12  ratification with a 7-year deadline, and

13         WHEREAS, in 1978 Congress extended the original

14  ratification deadline for 3 more years, and

15         WHEREAS, Congress placed a deadline of June 30, 1982,

16  on the ratification process for the Equal Rights Amendment for

17  men and women and 35 states ratified the proposed amendment

18  before the deadline, and

19         WHEREAS, Congress submitted the Madison Amendment to

20  the states as part of the proposed Bill of Rights on September

21  25, 1789, which relates to the timing of Congressional pay

22  raises, but it was not ratified until 203 years later in 1992,

23  making it the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States

24  Constitution and establishing a precedent such that the Equal

25  Rights Amendment is sufficiently contemporaneous and therefore

26  remains viable, and

27         WHEREAS, in 1998 Florida voters, by a margin of 65

28  percent to 35 percent, approved a similar amendment to the

29  Florida Constitution when they approved Revision 9, which

30  added and clarified that "all natural persons, female and male

31  alike, are equal before the law," therefore clearly indicating

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    Florida Senate - 2006                                  SCR 204
    35-336-06




 1  that ratification of the federal Equal Rights Amendment would

 2  be fully consistent with the will of the majority of voters in

 3  this state, and

 4         WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution

 5  allows the Legislature of the State of Florida to ratify this

 6  proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States,

 7  and

 8         WHEREAS, the Legislature of the State of Florida finds

 9  that the Equal Rights Amendment for men and women is

10  reasonable and sufficiently contemporaneous and needed in the

11  United States Constitution because while women enjoy more

12  rights today than they did when the Equal Rights Amendment was

13  first introduced in 1923 or when it passed out of Congress in

14  1972, hard-won laws against gender discrimination do not rest

15  on any unequivocal constitutional foundation and the laws can

16  be inconsistently enforced or even repealed, and

17         WHEREAS, elements of gender discrimination remain in

18  statutory and case law, and courts have had difficulty

19  applying a consistent standard to gender classifications which

20  are not inherently suspect or comparable to racial or ethnic

21  classifications under equal-protection analysis, and

22         WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment for men and women

23  is necessary in order to have a clear constitutional guarantee

24  that gender is considered a suspect classification and

25  entitled to the same strict scrutiny that courts reserve for

26  race, religion, and national origin, NOW, THEREFORE,

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28  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida, the

29  House of Representatives Concurring:

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    Florida Senate - 2006                                  SCR 204
    35-336-06




 1         That the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the

 2  United States set forth below is ratified by the Legislature

 3  of the State of Florida.

 4                          "Article ____

 5         "SECTION 1.  Equality of rights under the law shall not

 6  be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on

 7  account of sex.

 8         "SECTION 2.  The Congress shall have the power to

 9  enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this

10  article.

11         "SECTION 3.  This amendment shall take effect two years

12  after the date of ratification."

13         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that certified copies of the

14  foregoing preamble and resolution be immediately forwarded by

15  the Secretary of State of the State of Florida, under the

16  great seal, to the President of the United States, the

17  Secretary of State of the United States, the President of the

18  Senate of the United States, the Speaker of the House of

19  Representatives of the United States, and the Administrator of

20  General Services of the United States.

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