Label
Council Members Gadus, Adams, McPherson, Moline, Whitman and Williams
Title
Resolution expressing Toledo City Council support of H.J. Res. 17, Removing the Deadline for the Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, and H.J. Res. 28, Restarting the Amendment Process for the Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment; and declaring an emergency.
Summary
WHEREAS, on March 22, 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by the U.S. Senate and sent to the states for ratification. The original legislation set a deadline of seven years for ratification by the required three-fourths of state legislatures. By 1979, 39 states had ratified the amendment. The deadline was extended to 1982, however no additional states completed ratification during that time; and
WHEREAS, beginning in 2017, additional states took action to ratify the ERA beginning with Nevada. Illinois and Virginia followed suit in 2018 and 2020, however the National Archives and Records Administration refused to certify the ratification; and
WHEREAS, almost fifty years later the reality of equal rights has still not been realized; and
WHEREAS, on January 21, 2021, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) introduced H.J. Res. 17 to remove the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment that was agreed to in the United States Senate in 1972 and providing that the Articles of Amendment be valid whenever it is ratified by three-fourths of the legislatures of the states; and
WHEREAS, on March 1, 2021, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) and lead co-sponsor Congressman Tom Reed (R-NY) introduced H.J. Res. 28 to restart the amendment ratification that stalled during the mid-1970’s; and
WHEREAS, the necessity of the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment was made ever more apparent by the disparity of the negative effects of COVID on women and especially women of color; and
WHEREAS, “Our Constitution, when written, purposefully excluded the majority of Americans. Since then, updates have brought us closer to equality for all, but we still lack gender equality in our founding document. The residual impact of this historical exclusion has never been more clear than this past year. If we want to fully recover from this pandemic, we urgently need constitutional gender equality. All needs to mean all,” said Kati Hornung, Director, VoteEquality; NOW, THEREFORE,
Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Toledo:
SECTION 1. That Toledo City Council strongly supports the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and the important protections that it provides.
SECTION 2. That Toledo City Council supports both H.J. Res. 17 and H.J. Res. 28 in so far as they will facilitate the timely ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by three-fourths of the state legislatures and ultimately provide for the inclusion of this important amendment to the United States Constitution.
SECTION 3. That the Clerk of Council is hereby authorized and directed to forward a certified copy of this resolution to President Joseph Biden, to the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives and request that a copy be forwarded to each of the duly elected United States Representatives and also forward a certified copy of this resolution to the Clerk of the United States Senate and request that a copy be forwarded to each of the duly elected United States Senators.
SECTION 4. That all formal actions concerning and relating to the passage of this Resolution were passed in an open meeting of this Council, and that all deliberations of this Council and any of its committees that resulted in such formal action were in meetings open to the public, in compliance with all legal requirements including Section 121.22 of the Ohio Revised Code.
SECTION 5. That this Resolution is declared to be an emergency measure and shall take effect and be in force from and after its adoption. The reason for the emergency lies in the fact that this Resolution is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety and property; and for the further reason that immediate action is necessary in order to authorize a resolution indicating the support of Toledo City Council on a matter of great importance to the City in a timely manner which shall take effect immediately upon adoption.
Vote on emergency clause: yeas _____, nays _____.
Adopted: _________________, as an emergency measure: yeas _____, nays _____.
Attest: ________________________ __________________________________
Clerk of Council President of Council
Approved: _____________________ __________________________________
Mayor
I hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of a Resolution adopted by Council ________________________.
Attest: ________________________
Clerk of Council