The Trump administration on Wednesday said it was too late to renew the effort to push through a decades-old proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ensure
American women have equal rights to men.
![Trump administration casts doubt on womens rights amendment push](https://media.zenfs.com/en-US/reuters.com/07f4b3f6cab2700c4f4c1e74c0ec0e66)
The U.S. Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued a legal opinion saying the deadline had long passed for additional states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which was backed by 35 states in the 1970s, three short of the required number.
Under the Constitution, 38 states and both the House of Representatives and the
Senate have to approve a proposed amendment for it for it to be formally adopted.