Long odds for Equal Rights Amendment

[ProSense]

Long odds for Equal Rights Amendment

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
Tue Apr 3, 3:51 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Democrats face long odds in their effort to revive an Equal Rights Amendment that failed three decades ago, even if unisex bathrooms are no longer much of a fear factor.

Now dubbed the Women's Equality Amendment, the measure has much less support now than when it sailed through Congress in 1972. It died years later when only 35 states — three short of those needed — endorsed it.

What supporters hope will become the 28th Amendment to the Constitution states in its key line that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

With Democrats controlling Congress for the first time in a dozen years, "prospects are better now than they have been in a very very long time," Terry O'Neill, executive director of the National Council of Women's Organizations, said after the constitutional amendment was introduced in the Senate and House last week.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, said he plans hearings on the modern-day ERA. Sponsors said their goal is to get House and Senate votes on it before 2009.

"I would love for the American people to see who votes against women's equality," said O'Neill.

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Why hasn't Congress passed this?

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t