Women are people. You would think that was obvious. But to some people it is not. And some of those people are important.

A couple years ago I was shocked to learn that a Supreme Court Justice does not include women in the category of “all persons” with rights expressed in the 14th Amendment to the US Consitution (see Are you smarter than a Supreme Court justice). Justice Scalia is a smart guy so this can’t be dismissed a crazy position but I’ll just say I don’t understand his reasoning.

So in order to make sure that it is absolutely clear that “all persons” includes women, we should pass the Equal Rights Amendment

The ERA: A Brief Introduction

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

These simple words comprise the entire text of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), affirming the equal application of the U.S. Constitution to both females and males.

Quote from http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/overview.htm

If you think our laws should consider women to be people, please sign the petion on the White house website. Maybe this will motivate President Obama to push for the ratification of this simple and important amendment.