Protester ejected from Senate gallery during procedural vote on Equal Rights Amendment measure
NBCDec 24, 2022
US Senate Fails to Advance Equal Rights Amendment Resolution
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Image copyright: Getty Images [via CNN]
The Facts
By a vote of 51-47, the US Senate on Thursday failed to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), a proposal to ratify the Constitution to include an amendment that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex.
While two Republicans voted to ratify — Senators Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska — Democrats fell short of the 10 GOP votes needed.
The Spin
Republican narrative
This proposal should have been dead on arrival, given that any proposed constitutional amendment must be passed during the two-year Congress that proposed it. Since that Congress ended 50 years ago, current politicians who took an oath to support and defend the Constitution should have balked at such an absurd "deadline extension." If Democrats want to pass this silly amendment, Congress must restart the process and ask 38 states to ratify it again.
Democratic narrative
The only right applied equally to both sexes in the US Constitution is the right to vote, which leaves half the country vulnerable to the recent Republican attacks on women's rights that were fought for and won last century. From a technical standpoint, the ERA would also clarify sex discrimination jurisprudence and thus protect women from inconsistent protections across the nation.
