The Patchwork Quilt of Gender Equality: How State Equal Rights Amendments Can Impact the Federal Equal Rights Amendment

Abstract

After progress on the federal Equal Rights Amendment stalled in the late 1970s, states began to take matters into their own hands by adopting their own Equal Rights Amendments. In the forty-plus years since the federal Equal Rights Amendment was initially passed by Congress, twenty-eight states have adopted some form of their own Equal Rights Amendment. In that time, both state and federal courts have been tasked with interpreting these state Equal Rights Amendment. This decisional authority is uniquely relevant to the question of how the federal Equal Rights Amendment is likely to be interpreted if and when it is made a part of the United States Constitution. This essay endeavors to explore the subject matter areas in which state Equal Rights Amendment litigation has been prevalent and how that litigation is likely to impact the interpretation of the federal Equal Rights Amendment.