Panel votes down Equal Rights Amendment in Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. – A proposal to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in Virginia is all but dead.

A Republican-controlled committee in the House of Delegates voted down the gender-equality measure Friday.

Proponents had hoped the measure still had chance of passage after a subcommittee defeated the measure Tuesday. Friday’s vote means the measure has almost no chance of passage this year.

ERA proponents had hoped Virginia will become the 38th state to approve the amendment. It would then have met the threshold for ratification in the U.S. Constitution. But even if it’s ratified, court battles would likely ensue over a long-passed 1982 deadline set by Congress.