House passes joint resolution to remove ERA deadline The House on Wednesday passed a joint resolution that would remove a deadline for states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, after a recent federal court ruling said the deadline for the ERA expired long ago. Proponents of the ERA believe the court ruling signaled that it’s now up to Congress to validate their argument that the ERA has already been ratified and should be published as the Constitution’s 28th Amendment. But opponents say Congress cannot retroactively change its imposed deadline decades after it expired and blast the vote as a political stunt.