HCR 8003

1	House Concurrent Resolution
2	A concurrent resolution ratifying the proposed amendment
3	to the Constitution of the United States relating to equal
4	rights for men and women.
5
6	WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in
7	Congress in 1923 and was filed every session thereafter from
8	1923 to 1972, and
9	WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment was finally approved by
10	Congress in 1972 and sent to the states for ratification with a
11	7-year deadline, and
12	WHEREAS, in 1978 Congress extended the original
13	ratification deadline for 3 more years, and
14	WHEREAS, 35 of the 38 necessary states have already
15	ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, and
16	WHEREAS, Article V of the Unites States Constitution makes
17	no provision for a state rescinding its ratification; no state
18	has rescinded ratification; and, to the contrary, states are
19	beginning again to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to show
20	resolve, and
21	WHEREAS, action on the Equal Rights Amendment has never
22	been officially terminated and therefore remains in progress,
23	and
24	WHEREAS, Congress submitted to the states on September 25,
25	1789, as part of the proposed Bill of Rights, the Madison
26	Amendment, which, although relating to a different issue, the
27	timing of Congressional pay raises, remained active for 203
28	years before it was ratified in 1992 to become the Twenty-
29	seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution and, among
30	other substantive legal arguments, establish a precedent that
31	the Equal Rights Amendment is likewise sufficiently
32	contemporaneous and therefore remains viable, and
33	WHEREAS, in 1998 Florida voters, by a margin of 65 percent
34	to 35 percent, approved a similar amendment to the Florida
35	Constitution when they approved Revision 9, which added and
36	clarified that "all natural persons, female and male alike, are
37	equal before the law," therefore clearly indicating that
38	ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment would be fully
39	consistent with the will of the majority of voters in this
40	state, and
41	WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution allows
42	the Legislature of the State of Florida to ratify this proposed
43	amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and
44	WHEREAS, the Legislature finds that the Equal Rights
45	Amendment for men and women is reasonable and sufficiently
46	contemporaneous and needed in the United States Constitution;
47	because, while women enjoy more rights today than they did when
48	the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in 1923 or when
49	it passed Congress in 1972, hard-won laws against gender
50	discrimination do not rest on any unequivocal constitutional
51	foundation and the laws can be inconsistently enforced or even
52	repealed, and
53	WHEREAS, elements of gender discrimination remain in
54	statutory and case law, and courts have had difficulty applying
55	a consistent standard to gender classifications that is not
56	inherently suspect or comparable to racial or ethnic
57	classifications under equal-protection analysis, and
58	WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment for men and women is
59	necessary in order to have a clear constitutional guarantee that
60	gender is considered a suspect classification and entitled to
61	the same strict scrutiny that courts reserve for race, religion,
62	and national origin, NOW, THEREFORE,
63
64	Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of
65	Florida, the Senate Concurring:
66
67	That the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the
68	United States set forth below is ratified by the Legislature of
69	the State of Florida.
70	"Article ____
71	"SECTION 1.  Equality of rights under the law shall not be
72	denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
73	account of sex.
74	"SECTION 2.  The Congress shall have the power to enforce,
75	by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
76	"SECTION 3.  This amendment shall take effect two years
77	after the date of ratification."
78	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of the
79	foregoing preamble and resolution be immediately forwarded by
80	the Secretary of State of the State of Florida, under the great
81	seal, to the President of the United States, the Secretary of
82	State of the United States, the President of the Senate of the
83	United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of
84	the United States, and the Administrator of General Services of
85	the United States.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.