Establishing the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

If passed and held constitutional by courts, the ERA would become enforceable law allowing women and gender-minorities to challenge any law or policy written in sex-specific or gender-specific terms as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment-equivalent at the federal level. Past state ERAs (Illinois 1970, Pennsylvania 1971) expanded women's rights in property, education, and employment. Federal litigation under an enforced ERA would likely challenge military draft registration (currently male-only), sex-specific bathrooms and locker rooms in federal facilities, sex-specific imprisonment, and federal employment policies. The amendment's breadth could affect federal welfare benefits, Social Security spousal benefits, and health policy. Litigation costs for federal agencies defending existing policies would likely be substantial. However, the resolution faces a threshold question: whether courts will recognize Congress's power to waive its own deadline and whether 38 state ratifications, spread across 50+ years, meet constitutional amendment requirements. No federal court has yet validated an amendment ratified under these circumstances.