HCR 8001

1
House Concurrent Resolution
2A concurrent resolution ratifying the proposed amendment
3to the Constitution of the United States relating to equal
4rights for men and women.
5
6     WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in
7Congress in 1923 and was filed every session thereafter from
81923 to 1972, and
9     WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment was finally approved by
10Congress in 1972 and sent to the states for ratification with a
117-year deadline, and
12     WHEREAS, in 1978 Congress extended the original
13ratification deadline for 3 more years, and
14     WHEREAS, Congress placed a deadline of June 30, 1982, on
15the ratification process for the Equal Rights Amendment for men
16and women and 35 states ratified the proposed amendment before
17the deadline, and
18     WHEREAS, Congress submitted the Madison Amendment to the
19states as part of the proposed Bill of Rights on September 25,
201789, which relates to the timing of Congressional pay raises,
21but it was not ratified until 203 years later in 1992, making it
22the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
23and establishing a precedent such that the Equal Rights
24Amendment is sufficiently contemporaneous and therefore remains
25viable, and
26     WHEREAS, in 1998 Florida voters, by a margin of 65 percent
27to 35 percent, approved a similar amendment to the Florida
28Constitution when they approved Revision 9, which added and
29clarified that "all natural persons, female and male alike, are
30equal before the law," therefore clearly indicating that
31ratification of the federal Equal Rights Amendment would be
32fully consistent with the will of the majority of voters in this
33state, and
34     WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution allows
35the Legislature of the State of Florida to ratify this proposed
36amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and
37     WHEREAS, the Legislature of the State of Florida finds that
38the Equal Rights Amendment for men and women is reasonable and
39sufficiently contemporaneous and needed in the United States
40Constitution because while women enjoy more rights today than
41they did when the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in
421923 or when it passed out of Congress in 1972, hard-won laws
43against gender discrimination do not rest on any unequivocal
44constitutional foundation and the laws can be inconsistently
45enforced or even repealed, and
46     WHEREAS, elements of gender discrimination remain in
47statutory and case law, and courts have had difficulty applying
48a consistent standard to gender classifications which are not
49inherently suspect or comparable to racial or ethnic
50classifications under equal-protection analysis, and
51     WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment for men and women is
52necessary in order to have a clear constitutional guarantee that
53gender is considered a suspect classification and entitled to
54the same strict scrutiny that courts reserve for race, religion,
55and national origin, NOW, THEREFORE,
56
57Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of
58Florida, the Senate Concurring:
59
60     That the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the
61United States set forth below is ratified by the Legislature of
62the State of Florida.
63
"Article ____
64     "SECTION 1.  Equality of rights under the law shall not be
65denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
66account of sex.
67     "SECTION 2.  The Congress shall have the power to enforce,
68by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
69     "SECTION 3.  This amendment shall take effect two years
70after the date of ratification."
71     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of the
72foregoing preamble and resolution be immediately forwarded by
73the Secretary of State of the State of Florida, under the great
74seal, to the President of the United States, the Secretary of
75State of the United States, the President of the Senate of the
76United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of
77the United States, and the Administrator of General Services of
78the United States.


CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.