The ERA

2001-2023 | 22 years

In this episode, the staff is working on the President’s Correspondents Dinner speech while the President deals with a terrorist threat. Toby also discovers that Vice President Hoynes thinks that President Bartlet will not be running for reelection and learns that the President has MS. While working on the speech, Ainsley and Sam debate over the ERA, or Equal Rights Amendment.

The ERA was proposed in 1923, 3 years after the ratification of the 19th Amendment. It did not pass Congress until 1972 and was not ratified before the 1982 deadline. United States Amendments need to be proposed by either a 2/3rds Congressional or State Legislature majority and then ratified by a 3/4ths majority of states. Given how extremely hard it is to amend the Constitution, Constitutional Amendments are much more reliable protection than federal laws, which are liable to change Congress to Congress. This April, Congress revisited the ERA for the first time in 40 years, voting 51-47 to remove the deadline, 9 votes below the 60-vote threshold needed for the measure to pass. The proposed amendment reads “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” It is essentially meant to guarantee that Americans have equal rights under the law regardless of sex. 

Those who support the law argue that it would help protect the civil, human, and diplomatic rights of all Americans while also making it easier for them to fight against discrimination. It will also remove laws that discriminate by gender and make it easier for government action to be taken to decrease the gender pay gap.

The amendment also could enshrine into the Constitution a stronger argument for abortion and LGBTQIA+ rights, something which draws liberals to the law while turning Conservatives away. The politics and religion in the issue of the Equal Rights Amendment come to light when looking at a map of states which haven’t ratified the ERA-Arizona, Utah, and 12 Southern Bible Belt States. 

Some against the amendment argue it does not protect those who don’t identify as either male or female. Others also point out that it could force women to be drafted into military combat, take away wives' and widows' rights to Social Security, and cause a reinterpretation of laws that have to do with gender, such as those about marriage, divorce, and alimony. Others, such as Ainsley in the episode, argue that the ERA is redundant, humiliating, and unnecessary because the pay equity gap is already covered by the 1964’s Pay Equity Act and Women choose to have children knowing it will set back their careers.

Given how the ratification deadline has passed and Congress has not been able to get the votes together to extend it, the fate of the ERA and whether or not it will be added to the Constitution remains after 100 years still in limbo.