On Feb. 9, 2020, New Jersey will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Garden State's adoption of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Amendment, which barred discrimination in voting "by the United States or by any state on account of sex," was finally ratified to the federal Constitution by a single-vote margin in the Tennessee legislature on August 18, 1920, eight months after New Jersey's assent. That final passage completed the necessary ratification "by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states" as required under Article V of the United States Constitution, thereby giving women the full and unfettered equal right to vote nationwide.

At the risk of burying the lede, however, that milestone may be eclipsed by the ratification of the long-pending "Equal Rights Amendment," a sweeping gender equality measure that has languished since the 1970′s. More commonly known as the "ERA," the Equal Rights Amendment mandates full Constitutional equality in "the United States or by any state on account of sex."  First drafted by New Jersey native Alice Paul and introduced in Congress on Dec. 10, 1923, it has had a long, storied history, including as a rallying cry of the gender rights movement. Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York has been pushing for ratification since she came to Congress in 1993.

For women, it could bolster equal pay, domestic violence protections and pregnancy discrimination laws while, for men, it may require paternity leave be extended on an equal basis as maternity leave, among other issues. It could also quell controversies over the applicability of sex-based discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including the Circuit split underpinning cases before the United States Supreme Court this term involving LGBT rights.

The Equal Rights Amendment faded from the collective political consciousness after achieving bi-cameral support in the United States Congress and the assent of 35 state legislatures in the 1970′s and early 1980's, just three states shy of the necessary 38 states required for the critical mass of ratification.

Some suggest the lack of momentum was a result of Congress' insertion of a so-called sunset provision in the preamble of its passage of the ERA that purported to automatically withdraw Congressional approval if it was not fully ratified by the "several states" before March 22, 1979 (later extended to June 30, 1982). Legal experts argue that the deadline in the preamble is non-operative as Congress ratified the text of the ERA, rendering any time limitations outside of the four corners of an amendment's language to be mere window-dressing. Of course, Congress could short-cut any legal uncertainty on this issue by voiding its prior ratification deadline altogether simply by reaffirming the Equal Rights Amendment without any time limit.

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Two states recently stepped up and added their names to the ERA Constitutional ratification list, bringing the total to 37 states approving the Amendment—Nevada, on March 22, 2017, and Illinois, on May 30, 2018. A recent seismic "blue wave" change in the Virginia legislature arising out of the November 2019 election has further revived the ERA and its promise of full Constitutional equality "on account of sex," all but assuring the completion of the ratification process within the next month.

Emboldened activists have taken up the proposed ERA as the nation's 28th Constitutional Amendment, which has lain dormant for decades, with the VAratifyERA organization even posting sentinels in the Virginia legislature to encourage and then formally herald its expected passage in the next few weeks.

Virginia's incoming elected leaders have promised to take it up immediately when the legislature convenes this month, with Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, announcing last November that, "Virginia will be next in line to pass the E.R.A." The promise is hardly an empty one as the Virginia Senate failed by only one vote when the body was under the prior leadership.

True to its storied history, the ratification of the ERA is not without controversy and will require additional activism and, maybe, litigation. In addition to Congress' insertion of the sunset provision in the preamble of its approval resolution seeking to automatically withdraw Congressional approval as of June 30, 1982, five states' legislatures passed resolutions purporting to rescind their prior state ratifications of the ERA—Nebraska on March 15, 1973; Tennessee on April 23, 1974; Idaho on February 8, 1977; Kentucky on March 20, 1978; and South Dakota on March 5, 1979.

However, those states' purported rescissions are generally considered a legal nullity. For example, the New Jersey and Ohio legislatures both passed resolutions seeking to rescind their respective state ratification of the 14th Amendment. However, notwithstanding those attempts, the official 1868 tally of ratifying states for the 14th Amendment compiled by the United States Secretary of State and Congress includes New Jersey and Ohio. Moreover, also included in the tally were North Carolina and South Carolina, states which originally rejected, but later ratified the 14th Amendment. Thus, in the formal course of enshrining the 14th Amendment to the United State Constitution, Congress rejected both attempted withdrawals of ratifications and previous rejections prior to ratification, determining those had no legal effect.

New Jersey will likely have two special civil rights moments to celebrate in the coming months.  First, the centennial anniversary of its Feb. 9, 1920, ratification of the 19th Amendment, which eliminated gender barriers in voting. The Garden State can also claim some bragging rights when the Equal Rights Amendment is formally installed in the United States Constitution. Burlington County suffragist Alice Paul wrote the ERA in 1921, stating, "We shall not be safe until the principle of equal rights is written into the framework of our government." Ms. Paul's dream may soon become the 28th Amendment.

Thomas H. Prol is a member of Sills Cummis & Gross in Newark and an adjunct professor of Law & Sexuality at Seton Hall University School of Law. He was the first openly gay president of the New Jersey State Bar Association in 2016-2017.  The opinions expressed herein are his own.