Fairfax County Supervisors Endorse Letter In Support Of ERA Certification

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors passed a board matter Tuesday in support of the Equal Rights Amendment in response to Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares withdrawing the state from a legal effort to get it added to the U.S. Constitution.

In the motion, supervisors directed staff to draft a letter of support of the ERA and the need to certify it as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. The letter will be sent to Miyares, signed by Fairfax County Board Chairman Jeffrey McKay, no later than Friday, according to the motion.

Virginia became the 38th sate to ratify the ERA in 2020 following a vote in the General Assembly, paving the way for the amendment to become recognized as the 28th Amendment.

Under the Constitution, constitutional amendments are valid once ratified by three-fourths of the states, or 38 states. Congress in 1972 passed the ERA, which stated "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring and the attorneys general of Illinois and Nevada filed a lawsuit against the archivist of the United States in 2020 to "carry out his statutory duty" of publishing and certifying the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.

On Feb. 18, Miyares announced his decision to remove Virginia as a plaintiff in a lawsuit that would force the federal government to recognize Virginia’s ratification of the ERA as the 38th and final state needed to amend the Constitution, and certify the amendment.

After passing the ERA in 1972, Congress set a deadline of 1982 to ratify the ERA.

A federal judge ruled a year ago that the deadline to ratify the ERA “expired long ago" and that Virginia’s ratification of the amendment was too late.