Correspondence: On Article I, Section 7, Clause 3 -- and the Amendment of the Constitution

Abstract

At this writing, Congress is considering whether to extend the time for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.' I have recently come from a hearing of a House Subcommittee,2 at which I testified that, in my opinion, due to the expressly conditional linkage, in the original proposal, between (1) the sheer validity of the Amendment and (2) its ratification within seven years, the original two-thirds majorities in Congress voted to "propose" such conditional validity and could have voted for nothing else.3 The result seems to me to be that any modification in the stated condition to validity must be approved by two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate. I do not wish just now to argue the merits of this opinion. My concern at the moment is with the general loosening-up of attitudes toward questions concerning the proper procedure to be followed in the amendment process, and with another specific sort of looseness that may now threaten.