Thursday, March 29, 2007

A Quick Thought on the ERA

The text of the relevant part of the Equal Rights Amendment, currently batting its way around Congress:

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

And here is the end of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

So what does the ERA guarantee that the Fourteenth Amendment hasn't already covered?

5 comments:

Miguel said...

There really is nothing that the 14th amendment doesn't already cover.

What we have here is a special interest group (i.e. feminist) trying to get a special amendment that applies to only them so they feel good about themselves, and perhaps get some big thing to push some momentum on their agendas.

- miguel

Jeff said...

The 14th Amendment doesn't cover grapefruit...

Matthew B. Novak said...

... or, apparently, fetuses... ;-)

Mike said...

Exactly. The only ERA I give a flying shit about is that of whatever Braves pitcher is currently on the mound.

Michael said...

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Sounds to me like it's guaranteeing equal rights during sex.

Don't they mean "gender?" Because that is covered by the 14th, making this redundant...
Damn, I hate imprecise language.