OCR Text |
Show ERA EXTENSION COULD INVALIDATE 24 RATIFICATIONS Responding to a new study, U.S. Senator Jake Garn(R-Utah) Garn(R-Utah) Thursday warned that extending the ratification deadline for the Equal Rights Amendment "is a bad Idea, regardless of one's views on the amendment itself." The study, prepared by Washington University law professor, Jules B. Gerard, shows that an ERA extension "is likely to Invalidate the ratifications of at least 24 states," Gam noted. "While I'm unalterably opposed to the amendment," Gam said, "I'm also very concerned about the possible confusion and distortions In the traditional ratification process that are outlined in Professor Gerard's study." In his study, Gerard points out that "everyone assumed that states had ratified only the proposed amendment, not the time limit under which It was submitted, and further that the time limit had played no major role in the ratification rati-fication decisions. "Both of these assum-tions," assum-tions," the professor asserts,"... as-serts,"... are demonstrably Incorrect." Any "fair reading" read-ing" of the 24 states' ratification rati-fication documents "will lead one inevitably to the conclusion that the time limit was amaterial consideration to all of these states and that it is Impermissable to presume pre-sume that they would have ratified without it," Gerard said. |