HOUSE MEMORIAL 7

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2013

INTRODUCED BY

Gail Chasey

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE NEW MEXICO CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION IN WASHINGTON, D.C., TO VOTE TO SUPPORT LEGISLATION THAT WOULD REMOVE THE DEADLINE FOR RATIFICATION OF THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT.

     WHEREAS, equal rights for women are not specifically included in the United States constitution; and

     WHEREAS, the rights of women in the United States to receive equal pay for equal work, be protected against domestic violence and have fair work-leave policies and access to the reproductive health care services of their choice, among others, are daily being questioned and restricted; and

     WHEREAS, protection of women's rights at present is through a patchwork of existing laws, executive actions and judicial decisions that address individual cases of discrimination one by one as they arise; and

     WHEREAS, each or all of these individual existing laws, executive actions and judicial decisions may be ignored, eroded or overturned; and

     WHEREAS, an amendment that would guarantee rights for women that are equal to those of men would provide a fundamental legal remedy against all cases of discrimination based on gender; and

     WHEREAS, resolutions to pass an amendment to the United States constitution that would guarantee equal rights for women and men have been introduced into congress each year since 1923; and

     WHEREAS, thirty-five of the thirty-eight states required for the amendment to become part of the constitution ratified the equal rights amendment by the deadline of 1982; and

     WHEREAS, the deadline for ratification is not in the binding text of the document itself and, in fact, was later extended by another congress for an additional three years, thus establishing the precedent that congress has the power to do so; and

     WHEREAS, in the one hundred twelfth congress, Senate Joint Resolution 39, introduced by Senator Ben Cardin, and House Joint Resolution 47, introduced by Representative Tammy Baldwin, would remove the deadline for ratification of the amendment so that an additional three states may ratify it; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexicans feel justly proud that New Mexico was one of the first states in the union to ratify the equal rights amendment in 1973, and it passed its own equal rights amendment to the constitution of New Mexico in 1972;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that it call upon the New Mexico congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., to vote in favor of legislation that would remove the deadline for ratification of the equal rights amendment so that efforts can proceed to get ratification by the necessary additional three states so that, finally, the guarantee of equal rights for women and men in the United States will become the law of the land; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to each member of the New Mexico congressional delegation and to the chief clerks of the house of representatives and the senate of the United States congress.

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