The Department of Justice released an opinion on Wednesday that the window for the states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution expired more than 40 years ago.

Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office released a statement praising the opinion and advising that the opinion agrees in principle with the legal basis of the AG office’s lawsuit that seeks to block the attempt to resurrect and ratify the version of the Equal Rights Amendment that Congress passed in 1972.

“The DOJ agrees with Alabama’s principal legal argument that the ERA expired long ago and can no longer be ratified,” said Marshall.

Marshall went on to say how the “opinion recounts how Congress has often included deadlines for ratification of constitutional amendments to ensure that any change to our foundational document reflects the will of the people across the country ‘at relatively the same period.’”

“The DOJ opinion reaffirms that understanding and sets forth why the ERA expired in 1979 when the deadline passed without ratification from three-fourths of the States,” Marshall concluded.

For more information on Alabama’s lawsuit and the current state of the ERA click here.

Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: henry@new-yhn.local or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.