OHIO (TRIES) TO OVERCOME ITS (DISPUTED) RESCISSION OF ITS RATIFICATION OF 14TH A. After you've said that phrase, you can take a deep breath. Read this story, from Atrios via Pandagon. Another reminder (after the 27th Amendment) of the essential wackiness of Article V procedures and controversies. Ohio ratified the 14thA in January 1867, but rescinded its ratification the next year. The rescission was eventually ignored by Seward, however, because Ohio's rescission (along with New Jersey's) would have jeopardized the Amendment itself.

Here, by the way, are the search results for the term "fourteenth amendment" at the Ohio state legislature (current session). Fiscal analysis shows that the bill to begin Ohio's unambiguous ratification of the 14th A will not have any impact on the state budget. That's a relief.

If anyone can find any substantive and political reasons why Ohio would take up this controversy now, I'd love to see them! In the bill at issue right now, the legislature seeks to resolve doubt about Ohio's commitment to equal protection, etc. The text of the bill is below, from this site. Some neo-confederates have argued that the 14th A is illegitimate (read this discussion at the Southern Poverty Law Center), but is concern over those folksdriving this action?

Provides for the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to guarantee equal protection and due process to all persons born or naturalized in the United states.

CONTENT AND OPERATION

Background on Ohio's ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment

The 39th Congress of the United States, at its first session, by a constitutional majority of two-thirds of the members of each house, submitted what is now the Fourteenth Amendment (see comment) to the states for ratification. The joint resolution states that (1) the General Assembly ratified the Fourteenth Amendment by a joint resolution adopted January 11, 1867, but by a further joint resolution voted to rescind its ratification on January 15, 1868, before the Amendment became effective in July 1868, (2) the state of Ohio is considered by many authorities to have ratified the Amendment, but other authorities assert that Ohio's rescission may have been valid, and (3) the validity of the Amendment is indisputable regardless of the validity of Ohio's rescission, because Congress approved it by a two-thirds majority on June 13, 1866, and every state in the union at that time subsequently supported it, thereby exceeding the three-quarters majority of the states necessary for the ratification of a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution.

The joint resolution further states that (1) the Fourteenth Amendment is the primary guaranty for individual rights and liberties through its protection of the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, its prohibition on the deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, and its guaranty of equal protection of the laws and (2) the Amendment's ratification demonstrates the support of the people of the state of Ohio for the principles embodied in it.