GOP senator accidentally votes for ERA, then changes his vote

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) accidentally voted in favor of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) on Thursday before changing his vote to “no” at the last minute.

After initially giving the legislation a thumbs up, Cassidy ran back to the Senate just before the vote closed to switch his choice.

The bill, which sought to remove a previous deadline to ratify the ERA and recognize it as part of the Constitution, ultimately failed 51-47, with only Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) joining Democrats.

Cassidy joined several of his GOP colleagues last month in introducing a resolution to condemn the effort to recognize the ERA as part of the Constitution.

“Nobody should be allowed a backdoor way to amend the Constitution,” Cassidy said in a statement at the time. “This resolution ensures Democrats do not set a dangerous precedent by creating an illegal workaround to the amendment process laid out in the Constitution.”

The ERA, which would guarantee equal rights under the law regardless of sex, was initially passed by both chambers of Congress in 1972 with the requirement that at least three-fourths of the states ratify the amendment by 1979.

The deadline was extended until 1982, but only 35 of the necessary 38 states ultimately ratified the ERA. However, Nevada, Illinois and Virginia have all ratified the amendment in recent years, leading some to call for its addition to the Constitution.

Cassidy and his fellow Republicans claimed in last month’s resolution that the ERA has expired and “Congress has no power to modify a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment after the amendment has been submitted to the states.”

They also expressed their opposition to the ERA itself in a press release, claiming that the amendment would “potentially increase abortion access across the country, threaten religious liberties, and weaken protections for biological women.”