Washington (CNN) Three attorneys general of states that recently ratified the Equal Rights Amendment are suing to have the amendment added to the Constitution, challenging a Justice Department opinion that the deadline for passage expired decades ago.

In a complaint filed Thursday, the attorneys general of Virginia, Illinois and Nevada are asking the US District Court in Washington, DC, to force the archivist of the United States, who administers the ratification process, to "carry out his statutory duty of recognizing the complete and final adoption" of the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. The ERA would ban discrimination on the basis of sex and guarantee equality for women under the Constitution.

"Unfortunately, the forces that have tried to deny women equal protection under the law for centuries have not yet been fully vanquished," Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said in a conference call with reporters. "But this movement and the women in America have shown time and again, if you throw up roadblocks, they'll go over them, they'll go around them, they'll go straight through them."

The suit is the first legal response by liberal-leaning states to force ERA's passage following Virginia's ratification earlier this week , which supporters say is the final step toward the 38-state threshold necessary to enshrine an amendment in the US Constitution. Opponents argue the deadline to pass the amendment expired decades ago, and point to several states that are among the 38 that rescinded their support before the deadline.

The three Democratic attorneys general -- Herring, Kwame Raoul of Illinois and Aaron Ford of Nevada -- argue that the amendment is valid under Article V of the Constitution, which lays out the amendment process, and that the archivist does not have the authority over which amendments are added.

Read More