ERA Defeat

[Nathan Newman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "andie nachgeborenen" <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com>
> The ERA went down at least partially because the
> Supreme Court made it
> partially unneeded with a series of decisions
> striking down discriminatory
> laws.  In a lot of ways, the ERA was killed more by
> liberalism in the court
> than conservative opposition.

-There is good study of this, Why We Lost the ERA, by,
-who, Mansbridge(?) NWU Polisci, as I recall. I read it
=years ago, but I forget what she concluded. Did she
-agree with this view? jks

Haven't read it but just my view from looking at the debate in the last few
states that failed to ratify.  Actually, I believe it was Potter Stewart who
noted in a concurrence in Frontiero (a major equal rights for women
decision) that he worried that the decision might disrupt the debate over
the ERA.   I think he was right that it did. Without Frontiero and other
decisions that read a quasi-ERA into the constitution, the real ERA probably
would have sailed through.

-- Nathan Newman