Editorial: Better late than never: Adopt the ERA now, Florida

Not even death and taxes are more certain than this: The Florida Legislature in 2024 will once again refuse even to consider ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.

The presiding officers who set the agenda, one of whom happens to be a woman, made sure of that by consigning it to four committees in the House and three in the Senate, though in this Legislature, one in each chamber would be enough to kill the bill. The sponsors are Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach (SB 142) and Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton (HB 647).

Nothing is complicated here. It says simply that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

Nothing would be more gratifying than for Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and House Speaker Paul Renner to prove us wrong. They could ensure that it’s heard. And if they’d do that, there’s a decent chance it would pass, as it should.

It’s incomprehensible

It is hard to comprehend how any American, in soon-to-be 2024, could still doubt that men and women should be equal before the law.

It has now been 100 years since Congress first considered the ERA and 51 years since it approved it and sent it to the states to be ratified.

It has been the same 51 years since abuse of legislative power first kept Florida from ratifying it. Following swift approval in the House, Senate President Jerry Thomas, a conservative Democrat from Palm Beach County, refused to allow senators to vote on it. He cited an ancient provision in the state constitution that required an intervening election.

House Speaker Richard Pettigrew successfully sued Thomas in federal court. The U.S. Supreme Court had long since ruled that states could not write their own rules for ratifying amendments. But the ruling came after the session, national opposition had gathered steam, and the moment was lost. Thirty other states had ratified the ERA by then, but eight more were needed.

Defections on every vote

Thus began a multiyear saga in which the two houses of the Florida Legislature took turns rejecting it despite constant pressure from Gov. Reubin Askew. The question each time was which announced supporters would defect.

Few opponents ever changed sides. One who did was Kenneth “Buddy” MacKay of Ocala, a Democrat who became the only North Florida senator to support it. He was persuaded, he wrote, by meeting with a group of women organized by Anne Marston, wife of the president of the University of Florida, who told of discrimination they had encountered in other states.

The death knell for the ERA in Florida — and nationally, it was thought — came on April 14, 1977, when the Senate defeated it 21-19, despite 21 members having pledged to support it. The Senate’s conservative Democratic leaders were responsible.

Dempsey Barron, the Rules Committee chairman, refused to take a phone call from President Jimmy Carter urging support of the amendment. He called it “a waste of the president’s time.” Years later, out of office, Barron regretted opposing it. He had been moved by the service and sacrifice of women soldiers in Operation Desert Storm.

Over time, 38 states did ratify the proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution, most recently Nevada in 2017, Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020. All three acted after the expiration of a deadline Congress extended, and five others have rescinded approval. Legal precedents dispute whether the Constitution allows Congress to set deadlines for states to rescind, but the archivist of the United States has sided with conservative views on those issues and refuses to certify its adoption.

Overwhelming support

Support lives on. Public opinion heavily favors it: 71% overall, nearly nine of every 10 Democrats and even six of every 10 Republicans, according to a 2020 poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs.

Many of the specific objectives have been achieved since 1972 in courts or by state and federal legislation, but they need a constitutional floor to protect them from right-wing advances in legislatures, Congress and the Supreme Court.

“Pervasive gender discrimination persists in the form of wage disparities, sexual harassment and violence, and unequal representation in the institutions of American democracy,” says the Brennan Center for Justice in its explanation of the proposed amendment.

The ERA is about protecting men’s rights as well as women’s. Examples still occur. In Florida, HB 461 and SB 462 would allow women to exempt themselves from jury duty up to six months after giving birth. These days, the man is often the new parent who stays home while the woman returns to work. Any legislation should apply to both sexes equally, and the ERA would require it.

Florida waited until 1969 to ratify the 19th Amendment, which enabled women to vote, decades after other states had voted it into their constitutions. Florida’s belated approval was only symbolic, but it symbolized a lot. The Supreme Court’s historic reapportionment decisions had ended decades of unrepresentative rural rule and enabled Florida to elect the most progressive legislators ever seen in Tallahassee. But they left one great work unfinished — the ERA.

There will never be a better time than now to correct that. It is never too late to do what’s right.

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Anderson. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com.