The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday for the Equal Rights Amendment, which would codify gender equality in the Constitution. The ERA was passed in 1972 but was never ratified, as conservative opponents have argued the deadline for ratification has passed. The ERA would not only help address persistent inequality in areas like wages, it could also protect abortion rights and the rights of trans and nonbinary people. Constitutional and legal experts say Congress has the authority to change the ratification timeline. This is lawyer and constitutional scholar Kathleen Sullivan speaking at yesterday’s hearing.

Kathleen Sullivan: “It’s my belief that under Article 5 — Congress proposed it, 38 states ratified it — it is the law now. And the only thing standing in the way is the congressional deadline, which Congress set in 1972, altered in 1978, and has the power to change today.”

Yesterday’s hearing came as the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court struck down a case which would have compelled the U.S. archivist to publish and certify the Equal Rights Amendment as part of the Constitution.