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HARRY H. KELSO

26 Willowend
Houston, Texas 77024
713/ 468-3464
April 2, 1979

Mrs. Rema Lou Brown, Director
Counseling Center--Bayou Building
University of Houston at Clear Lake City
2700 Bay Area Boulevard
Clear Lake City, Texas

Dear Mrs. Brown:

First, let me thank you for your generous assistance in helping me locate some legal treatises on the subject of the extension of ratification time for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. I very much appreciated it, and I was pleased to hear this week from two sources that I thought you would wish to take note of.

I was particularly pleased with the answer that I received from the National Organization for Women. They sent me a copy of their legal brief on the subject. Commenting upon it from a legal standpoint, it is a fairly well written documented stand in favor of the extension; however, it does not, in my opinion, adequately address what I believe will be the main issue in the courts if and when this subject is reviewed by the judicial system: Can sovereign states who have, previous to the extension, granted their approval of the proposed constitutional amendment recind [sic] that approval during the Congressionally-mandated extension? I would venture the opinion that--at least from the reading of the words of the Court's opinion--the answer will be "yes", in favor of the states' rights to recind [sic]. Perhaps you will have a chance to review this, and come to another opinion. I'd be interested to hear what your viewpoint is on this.

The other source that I received a response from was U. S. Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kansas). I found her response very interesting, particularly on the last sentence of her letter.

Finally, let me also thank you for your help on the information concerning rape. I was very enlightened by a great deal of the information that I was provided through such sources as: Houston Rape Crisis Coalition, Ms. Nikki Van Hightower, WIRES, and the Houston Public Health Service. They all were very helpful, and I certainly hope the Texas Penal Code (passed in 1977) will be further used in the rape trials to come. It will do a great deal to changing the focus of such a trial from the reputation of the victim to the one who is charged with such an offensive act of violence.

In closing, let me ask you to please keep me informed of the programs that UH-CLC is giving (particularly on women's issues), and those women’s programs in the Houston area. I’m very interested.

Warmest personal regards.

Sincerely yours,
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Harry H. Kelso