[Publius]

The ERA died in March 1979 due to the 7-year ratification provision tacked onto it by Congress in 1972. All the way back in 1921, in Dillon v. Gloss, the Supreme Court green-lighted Congress on its ability to attach ratification windows to amendment proposals.

As the ratification window was closing in 1979, Congress decided to extend the window to March 1982. Rather than use the amendatory process, which requires a two thirds vote of both Houses of Congress, it chose to use the legislative process, which requires only a majority vote of both Houses and signature by the president. Jimmy Carter doubted the constitutionality of this method, but he signed the extension anyway.

In NOW v. Idaho, the federal courts got involved and declared that Congress used the wrong method to extend the ratification window. What Congress did was unconstitutional. Congress should have resubmitted the amendment proposal to the states for ratification by starting the whole process over from scratch, with a two thirds vote of each House to send it to the states for ratification.

Appeals to higher courts failed. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case because by then even the 1982 window had expired. The lower court decision in NOW v. Idaho stands: the ERA died in March 1979. Ratifications by Illinois and Virginia don't count and are just virtue signaling.

[Verginius Rufus]

I think most of the states which did ratify did so without much thought, before it had become controversial. Many of them probably would not have ratified if they had seriously considered the pros and cons.

The Courts now interpret the 14th amendment in favor of women's rights so feminists can already get what they want without the ERA. So it is mainly a symbolic issue.