Season 2, Episode 7 (Show 59): Now Now Now – Special Guest Jesse Wegman

February 16, 2022

Jesse Wegman returns for a lively discussion of what the ERA might mean for today’s constitutional and political order – depending on whether, and how, it is ratified.  Is ratification a “political question,” as the Court said it was in the 1930’s?  And what is the big news that is coming from Professor Amar?

We continue our discussion of the Equal Rights Amendment.  Is it the proposed ERA, the adopted ERA, or the dead ERA?  Some say we already have an ERA in the 14th and 19th Amendments; Akhil and Jesse explore what some women, such as Elizabeth Lady Stanton, had to say about the 14th Amendment and equal rights back in the day.  The SCOTUS was asked to weigh in on amendment adoption dates back in the 1930’s – they punted.  Would that happen again, should this reach them?  And – would it be better to have an ERA “Now Now Now,” as many insist, or is there a better way? Finally, Professor Amar is about to do something he hasn’t done in 22 years.  What is so important that it prompted this?