A federal appeals court declined to revive a bid from two states seeking the publication of the Equal Rights Amendment, but its backers persist in trying to get the long sought constitutional amendment recognized.

In an opinion Tuesday, Judges Robert Wilkins, Neomi Rao and J. Michelle Childs held that states that recently approved the stalled ERA—Nevada and Illinois—failed to show that the archivist of the U.S. had a duty to certify the proposed 28th amendment or that a ratification deadline Congress set in 1972 and later extended isn’t valid.