States have passed state equal rights amendments (ERAs) to their constitutions that provide various degrees of legal protection against discrimination based on sex. With some mirroring the broad language and guarantees of the proposed Federal Equal Rights Amendment, others more closely resemble the

Equal Protection Clause The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...

of the Fourteenth Amendment. The

standard of review In law, the standard of review is the amount of deference given by one court (or some other appellate tribunal) in reviewing a decision of a lower court or tribunal. A low standard of review means that the decision under review will be varied or ov ...

that a court applies in evaluating a discriminatory claim mandates the level of protection guaranteed, ranging from the most rigorous

strict scrutiny In U.S. constitutional law, when a law infringes upon a fundamental constitutional right, the court may apply the strict scrutiny standard. Strict scrutiny holds the challenged law as presumptively invalid unless the government can demonstrate th ...

, intermediate standard or the least-stringent

rational basis review In U.S. constitutional law, rational basis review is the normal standard of review that courts apply when considering constitutional questions, including due process or equal protection questions under the Fifth Amendment or Fourteenth Amendment ...

. Courts reflect on the unique

legislative history Legislative history includes any of various materials generated in the course of creating legislation, such as committee reports, analysis by legislative counsel, committee hearings, floor debates, and histories of actions taken. Legislative his ...

and development,

intent Intentions are mental states in which the agent commits themselves to a course of action. Having the plan to visit the zoo tomorrow is an example of an intention. The action plan is the ''content'' of the intention while the commitment is the ''a ...

, status of public policy and related

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...

in deciding the scope of legal safeguards afforded to sex discrimination, resulting in differences between state and federal

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

. A Supreme Court decision found that sex discrimination claims under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause are reviewed under the middle-tier intermediate scrutiny, based on the formal equality analysis of federal precedent. While some state courts have adopted this reading of their own equality provisions, most others with equal rights or equal protection language have regarded these clauses as requiring

Expanded state protection

While around twenty states have ruled provisions in their state constitutions expand the protection guaranteed to sex discrimination, some have read their ERAs to mandate a nearly absolutist approach or to apply strict scrutiny. Certain aspects frequently conflicting with federal protection are questions of facially-neutral laws and disparate impact, state action, whether sex is deemed a

suspect classification In United States constitutional law, a suspect classification is a class or group of persons meeting a series of criteria suggesting they are likely the subject of discrimination. These classes receive closer scrutiny by courts when an Equal Protec ...

, and different treatment because of unique biological traits. For example, states such as Pennsylvania, Colorado, Washington, Maryland and Massachusetts have some of the most stringent protection, their courts ruling the main intent of the ERA was to abolish using sex to make legal distinctions and allocate benefits. Others, such as New Mexico, have a complete prohibition against using classifications involving a physical trait unique to either sex or result in disadvantaging either women or men.

State vs. private action

Fourteenth Amendment guarantees are only applied to the actions executed by state actors, and does not cover purely private discriminatory actions. Many states have interpreted their ERAs as prohibiting sex discrimination performed by private entities as well as state actors, extending the scope of protection.

Disparate impact

Courts treat a challenged action differently if it is sex-neutral, or contains no explicit use of sex classifications, but results in adverse impact disproportionately burdening one sex more harshly than the other. As ruled in '' Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp.'', federal jurisprudence refuses to apply the more protective intermediate scrutiny to gender-neutral acts without direct proof sex discrimination is the purpose of the act. In contrast, some state courts have interpreted their ERAs to even protect against sex-neutral acts that have a disproportionate adverse impact on one gender by applying a heightened standard of review.

States adopting federal model of equalities

Fewer states have interpreted their ERAs as mandating a degree of protection more closely resembling the federal guarantees against sex discrimination. For example, Virginia, Rhode Island, Florida and Utah courts have ruled their constitutions only mandate an intermediate standard of review, mirroring the Equal Protection Clause analysis. In concluding the constitution's equality protection is not a "true ERA," the Rhode Island courts have accepted this middle-tier scrutiny, citing the unique history and intent of the legislature as justification."

List of state constitutions containing ERAs

State equal rights amendments and original constitutional equal rights provisions:

Table of protected classes

States where state-level ERAs have passed at least one house

* Maine: A state-level ERA passed the

Maine House of Representatives The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 voting members and three nonvoting members. The voting members represent an equal number of districts across the state and are elected via p ...

on February 15, 2022. *Minnesota: A state-level ERA passed the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. There are 134 members, twice as many as the Minnesota Senate. Floor sessions are held in the north wing of the State Capitol in Saint Pa ...

on March 7, 201
ERA Minnesota
*New York: A state-level ERA passed the

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an official ...

on July 1, 2022, and was passed again on January 24, 2023. The measure would amend Article 1, Section 11 of the New York Constitution to include ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex — including their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes. The measure will appear as a referendum on the November 2024 ballot.

References

{{Women's rights in the United States History of women's rights in the United States Second-wave feminism in the United States States of the United States law-related lists