Reply #29: Why two threads on the same subject? [View All]

[suston96]

"If ERA opponents believe that women already have the full protection of the Constitution through the 14th Amendment, they should have no objection to clarifying that guarantee through the specific wording of the ERA."

The Fourteenth is clear enough:

"Amendment XIV: Privileges or immunities, due process, elections and debt.

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. 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. "

And in Section 5, the details for enforcing this Amendment are also quite clear:

"Section 5.

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. "

Do we really need more generalized and unspecified instructions in the US Constitution that will always be subject to interpretation by partisan activists who will support whatever the prevailing political winds happen to blow their way?

The Constitution needs fixing in more serious ways. Redundancy on what it already contains makes no sense.