Alicia Keys has called for a renewed push to secure explicit constitutional protection for women as the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary.
In a video posted to a national campaign seeking legislative ideas, Keys focused on women’s rights, urging the public to help shape new laws.
She reminded viewers that the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in 1923 and would have made sex‑based discrimination unconstitutional, yet it was never adopted.
The amendment requires a two‑thirds vote in both the House and Senate, followed by ratification by three‑quarters of the states—a threshold it never met within the original seven‑year deadline.
Congress approved the ERA in 1973 with bipartisan support, but by the 1982 deadline only 35 states had ratified it, falling three short.
A later surge of state approvals in 2020 reached the required 38 states, but the delay prevented the amendment from being added to the Constitution.
Keys expressed disbelief at the century‑long delay and stressed that women are seeking equal, not special, rights.
She urged people to contribute ideas to the campaign’s platform and to voice their perspectives on the issue.
The late Supreme Court Justice had argued that the ERA would provide an unassailable constitutional basis for equal justice under the law.
In its absence, the Court has relied on the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, with the 1971 Reed v. Reed decision establishing a key precedent for gender discrimination cases.
