One hundred years ago on this date the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect, one year after having been ratified by the requisite number of states, under the terms of the amendment as proposed by Congress in 1917.
I’m sure most pundit commentary on this anniversary will concern itself with the futility of legislating morality and the repeal of prohibition in 1933, but the amendment is also a footnote to something that took place just this week, when the Virginia symbolically ratified the Equal Rights Amendment.
What would have been the 28th Amendment, guaranteeing equal right to women, is not likely to become the law of the land because the terms of the authorizing legislation required that the amendment be ratified by 38 states by 1979, seven years after finally being authorized by Congress. (The ERA was first proposed in 1923, as part of the series of social reforms that led to Prohibition.) The ERA, as ultimately passed by Congress, fell short of the required state ratifications in the time allotted, but continued to be pursued by a variety of interest groups and passed the required three-fourths of the states now over forty years later.
The interesting thing about the Eighteenth Amendment in this context is that it was the first proposed amendment to require ratification in a set time period. The Supreme Court upheld this time limit in Dillon v. Gloss, making it likely that Virginia’s action will be deemed merely symbolic and perhaps an attempt to prod Congress to reauthorize the ERA. Still, you never know what the Court might say this time.
To add to the confusion, four states (Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho and Kentucky) have tried to rescind their ratification of the ERS. The Supreme Court also held, in the case of Ohio’s conditional ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, that the state’s action was valid and final. This seems to imply that attempts to backtrack on the ERA would be considered invalid.
Of all this, I suppose, one thing will certainly be true. When all is said, someone will find a way to say still more.
And, as a follow up, several states are suing to have the ERA declared in effect.
