Letter: Why we still need Equal Rights Amendment
Bruce Simmons' series on the U.S. Constitution has been educational and badly needed. I want to make one point about the 14th Amendment on equal protection and due process for "all citizens."
It was not, and is not, all citizens, as women were specifically excluded in the debates preceding its passage. The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in national elections, after many states had already done so. To this day, there is no other gender equity guarantee in the federal constitution, although it exists in many state constitutions.
That is why we still need the Equal Rights Amendment, ratified by the requisite 38 states, to be certified by the U.S. Archivist as we mark its centennial this year.
Marti J. Sladek Downers Grove
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