89R12270 TBO-F     By: Lowe H.C.R. No. 57       CONCURRENT RESOLUTION          WHEREAS, On March 22, 1972, the 92nd Congress of the United   States of America, during its 2nd Session, with the   constitutionally-specified vote of two-thirds of both houses   thereof, gave final approval to House Joint Resolution No. 208,   commonly referred to as the "Equal Rights Amendment" (ERA), to   propose that amendment to the Constitution of the United States,   pursuant to Article V of that Constitution; and          WHEREAS, The exact text of the 1972 proposal reads as   follows:   "ARTICLE __________                "SECTION 1.  Equality of rights under the   law shall not be denied or abridged by the   United States or by any State on account of   sex.                "SEC. 2.  The Congress shall have the power   to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the   provisions of this article.                "SEC. 3.  This amendment shall take effect   two years after the date of ratification.";   and          WHEREAS, In offering that proposed federal constitutional   amendment to America's state lawmakers, the 92nd Congress chose a   deadline of seven years, or until March 22, 1979, for the   constitutionally-mandated ratification of the amendment by   three-fourths of the nation's state legislatures; and          WHEREAS, The authority of Congress to establish a   ratification deadline within which state legislators--or ratifying   conventions conducted within the states--must act upon a particular   proposed amendment to the federal Constitution was upheld by the   United States Supreme Court in the 1921 case of Dillon v. Gloss (256   U.S. 368); and          WHEREAS, In the form of Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 1,   62nd Texas Legislature, 2nd Called Session, on March 30, 1972,   Texas lawmakers responded by ratifying the proposed 1972 Equal   Rights Amendment to the federal Constitution, thus making the Texas   Legislature an "early ratifier" of the measure; and          WHEREAS, In its wording, Texas 1972 Senate Concurrent   Resolution No. 1 clearly references and alludes to the deadline of   seven years which the 92nd Congress had established for   ratification of the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment; and          WHEREAS, Quite belatedly, the legislatures of Nevada in 2017,   Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020, adopted resolutions   purporting to "ratify" the 1972 ERA literally decades after the   proposal had expired from state legislative consideration; and          WHEREAS, With those three post-deadline "ratifications,"   there are persons who mistakenly assert that the 1972 ERA received   the approval of the legislatures of the necessary 38 of the 50   states and, therefore, that the 1972 ERA has allegedly been   incorporated into the United States Constitution as the document's   28th Amendment; and          WHEREAS, In the aftermath of the Virginia General Assembly's   2020 "ratification" of the 1972 ERA, the United States House of   Representatives has twice adopted joint resolutions (House Joint   Resolution No. 79 of the 116th Congress and House Joint Resolution   No. 17 of the 117th Congress) both of which sought to remove the   original deadline set by the 92nd Congress for ERA ratification;   neither of those two joint resolutions, however, were voted upon by   the United States Senate during the now-concluded 116th and 117th   Congresses; and          WHEREAS, On January 17, 2025, the 46th President of the   United States--no longer in office--issued an erroneous   proclamation to the effect that the 1972 ERA "has cleared all   necessary hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution as the   28th Amendment" and declared that "the Equal Rights Amendment has   become part of our Constitution" and that action was in direct   contravention of the United States Supreme Court's 1798 decision in   the case of Hollingsworth v. Virginia (3 U.S. [3 Dall.] 378 [1798])   in which it was ruled that presidents play no official role at any   stage of the federal constitutional amendment process; and          WHEREAS, It is rather unfair for anyone to arbitrarily assume   that a state legislature which ratified the Equal Rights Amendment   back in the 1970s--with the understanding in those days that the   1972 ERA would expire of further state legislative consideration if   not ratified by enough state legislatures by the originally   agreed-to deadline of March 22, 1979--would still remain today   fully supportive of the 1972 measure; and          WHEREAS, A scheme is clearly afoot to tardily penetrate the   1972 Equal Rights Amendment into the United States Constitution by   improper and irregular methods, and, under the doctrine of qui   tacet consentire videtur ubi loqui debuit ac potuit ("he who is   silent is taken to agree, when he ought to have spoken, and was able   to"), it is incumbent upon the Texas Legislature to proactively   interpose clarification and objection to such an effort that--if   ultimately successful--would contort the intentions of the 62nd   Texas Legislature in 1972 when its members ratified the 1972 ERA;   and          WHEREAS, In 2021, North Dakota legislators adopted a   concurrent resolution clarifying that North Dakota's 1975   ratification of the 1972 ERA "officially lapsed at 11:59 p.m. on   March 22, 1979"; and          WHEREAS, This Texas concurrent resolution cannot--and does   not claim to--"rescind" the 62nd Texas Legislature's 1972   ratification of the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment as Texas was   formally on record as ratifying the ERA from March 30, 1972, through   March 22, 1979, and that history remains completely intact and   utterly unchanged by this Texas concurrent resolution as,   logically, there is nothing valid that currently remains pending   before the Texas Legislature with respect to the 1972 ERA that could   even be "rescinded" by the Texas Legislature in the first place; and          WHEREAS, Present-day Texas lawmakers should not silently and   passively allow the 62nd Texas Legislature's 1972 ratification of   the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment to be misappropriated or co-opted   by well-placed forces seeking to infiltrate the long-expired 1972   ERA into the federal Constitution by aberrant means; and          WHEREAS, Current Texas legislators disagree with--and want   no part of--any unorthodox, subpar, or experimental attempt to   belatedly burrow the no-longer-pending 1972 ERA into the nation's   highest legal document today; and          WHEREAS, Recognizing the need for women and men to be treated   as equals under the law, Texas has its own state-level Equal Rights   Amendment found in Article I, Section 3a, of the Texas   Constitution, thereby guaranteeing equal legal rights to both women   and men within this state; and          WHEREAS, During 2024, both houses of the United States   Congress formally received resolutions from state lawmakers in   Maryland and Minnesota memorializing the two houses of Congress to   ignore the irregularity of the Illinois, Nevada, and Virginia   legislatures' 2017, 2018, and 2020 post-deadline ERA   "ratifications" and to proceed nevertheless to adopt a   Congressional resolution proclaiming those three belated   "ratifications" to be valid and ultimately to declare, albeit   falsely, that the 1972 ERA has become the United States   Constitution's 28th Amendment; now, therefore, be it          RESOLVED, That the 89th Legislature of the State of Texas,   Regular Session, 2025, hereby assert the following facts:          (1)  The national 1972 Equal Rights Amendment did not become   part of the United States Constitution as the federal ERA failed to   garner the constitutionally-required ratifications from a   sufficient number of state legislatures by its original   congressionally-imposed deadline of March 22, 1979; and          (2)  The legislatures of three states--from 2017 to   2020--have purported to "ratify" the 1972 ERA, long after time ran   out for them to have done so, and the legislatures of two other   states have officially voiced support to Congress for that trio's   tardy and irregular actions; and          (3)  One of the two houses of the United States Congress has a   recent history of adopting joint resolutions agreeing that the   legislatures of late-acting states should have authority to   "ratify" the 1972 ERA decades after the proposal's date of   termination; and          (4)  The now out-of-power 46th President of the United States   issued a proclamation on January 17, 2025, erroneously declaring   that the 1972 ERA currently "is the law of the land"; and          (5)  The North Dakota Legislative Assembly demonstrated in   2021 the wisdom of formally going on record establishing legal   clarification as to the status of ERA ratifications made by state   legislatures from 1972 through 1977--when the Indiana General   Assembly became the last state legislature to validly ratify the   ERA during the 1970s; and, be it further          RESOLVED, That the Texas House of Representatives and the   Texas Senate, therefore, do hereby join their counterparts in North   Dakota by clarifying that the vitality of Senate Concurrent   Resolution No. 1 of the 2nd Called Session of the 62nd Texas   Legislature, by which Texas lawmakers ratified the 1972 Equal   Rights Amendment on March 30, 1972, officially lapsed at   11:59 p.m. on March 22, 1979; and, be it further          RESOLVED, That after March 22, 1979, the Texas   Legislature--while in agreement that women and men should enjoy   equal rights in the eyes of the law--should not be counted by either   house of the United States Congress, should not be counted by the   Archivist of the United States, should not be counted by the   legislature of any other state of the Union, should not be counted   by any federal or state court of law, and should not be counted by   any other person or entity as still having on record today a live   ratification of the long-expired Equal Rights Amendment to the   Constitution of the United States as was offered by House Joint   Resolution No. 208 of the 92nd Congress on March 22, 1972; and, be   it further          RESOLVED, That the 89th Texas Legislature respectfully asks   that any and all formal copies of the aforementioned Senate   Concurrent Resolution No. 1, 62nd Texas Legislature, 2nd Called   Session, which were conveyed to the federal government in 1972, be   returned to the State of Texas for safekeeping and permanent   preservation henceforth in the custody of the Texas State Library   and Archives Commission; and, be it further          RESOLVED, That the 89th Texas Legislature courteously   request that the full and complete verbatim text of this concurrent   resolution be duly published in the Congressional Record as an   official memorial to the United States Congress, and that this   concurrent resolution be referred to whichever congressional   committees, in each body, that would have appropriate jurisdiction   over this concurrent resolution's subject matter; and, be it   further          RESOLVED, That the Chief Clerk of the Texas House of   Representatives be directed to forward, in separate envelopes, no   later than September 30, 2025, individual certified copies of this   concurrent resolution, each accompanied by its own signed cover   letter, to the Vice President of the United States (in his formal   capacity as presiding officer of the United States Senate and   addressed to him at Suite S-212 of the United States Capitol   Building), to the Secretary of the United States Senate, to the   Parliamentarian of the United States Senate, and to both United   States Senators representing Texas; and, be it further          RESOLVED, That the Chief Clerk of the Texas House of   Representatives be directed to forward, in separate envelopes, no   later than September 30, 2025, individual certified copies of this   concurrent resolution, each accompanied by its own signed cover   letter, to the Speaker of the United States House of   Representatives, to the Clerk of the United States House of   Representatives, to the Parliamentarian of the United States House   of Representatives, and to all members of the United States House of   Representatives elected from districts in Texas; and, be it further          RESOLVED, That the Chief Clerk of the Texas House of   Representatives (pursuant to federal law, 98 Stat. 2280, et seq.)   be directed to forward, no later than September 30, 2025, a   certified copy of this concurrent resolution, accompanied by a   signed cover letter, to the Archivist of the United States at the   National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.