{"id":1647,"date":"2016-09-12T13:56:50","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T17:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2016-09-12T13:56:50","modified_gmt":"2016-09-12T17:56:50","slug":"feminist-judgments-necessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are Feminist Judgments Necessary?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week marked the passing of Phyllis Schlafly<\/a>, who arguably did more to undermine the equal rights of women than any other woman in United States history. As most know, Mrs. Schlafly tirelessly campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution<\/a> (\u201cERA\u201d). First drafted in 1923, the ERA stated that \u201c[e]quality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.\u201d The ERA failed to obtain ratification in the requisite number of states and Mrs. Schlafly is usually seen as a key architect of its demise.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Mrs. Schlafly\u2019s death made me ponder what American law, particularly American Constitutional law, would have looked like without her \u2013 that is, with an ERA. Would an ERA have allowed Title VII to have a bona fide occupational qualification, a provision that says that sex is a genuine job requirement for some employment? Would Geduldig v. Aiello<\/a><\/em> (1974), the case finding that pregnancy discrimination was not an equal protection violation, have been decided differently under an ERA? And what about all those abortion cases that followed Roe v. Wade<\/a><\/em> (1973), itself precariously based on the implicit right to privacy? What might Roe <\/em>and its progeny have looked like in a constitutional landscape that included an explicit equality based on sex?<\/p>\n

Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court<\/a><\/em>, the new book I edited with Linda Berger and Bridget Crawford, imagines what 25 key Supreme Court cases on gender might have looked like had the Justices used feminist reasoning to decide the cases. In essence, Feminist Judgments<\/em> imagines a Supreme Court diverse in multiple ways \u2013 not just race, gender, socioeconomic class and sexual orientation, but also philosophy, experience and perspective. The United States Supreme Court has been remarkably homogeneous in all these ways throughout history.<\/p>\n

If it isn\u2019t sex discrimination to treat \u201cpregnant persons\u201d unequally, would an ERA have really made a difference?<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Would Feminist Judgments<\/em> have been necessary as a visionary project had we had an ERA? It is unclear. Perhaps the passage of the ERA would have changed the composition of the Court \u2013 but that seems unlikely. And when I ponder what the ERA would have meant for American anti-discrimination law in the hands of an entirely conservative, white, economically privileged male Supreme Court, questions linger. After all, Geduldig\u2019s <\/em>holding was based on the famous distinction between women and \u201cpregnant persons.\u201d If it isn\u2019t sex discrimination to treat \u201cpregnant persons\u201d unequally, would an ERA have really made a difference? And Roe <\/em>and its progeny might have fared no better. Feminist advocates have been largely unsuccessful in convincing the Supreme Court that anti-abortion laws are an equal protection violation based on sex. If \u201cpregnant persons\u201d are a different category from women, aren\u2019t \u201cpersons who get abortions\u201d a similarly limited category?<\/p>\n

One mission of Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court<\/em> is to show that diversity \u2013 of sex, race, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, among others \u2013 matters in our system of law. ERA or no ERA, the composition of the Court is critical, because the Justices are the last interpretive word on what the Constitutional text means. If the Justices saw the ERA as limited, or not covering pregnancy or abortion, all the grand words of equality would not have made a real difference in women\u2019s lives. So, in some ways, Phyllis Schlafly made Feminist Judgments<\/em> necessary, but we might have needed it anyway.<\/p>\n

\n

This article originally appeared on\u00a0Fifteen Eightyfour: Academic Perspectives from Cambridge University Press<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week marked the passing of Phyllis Schlafly, who arguably did more to undermine the equal rights of women than any other woman in United States history. As most know, Mrs. Schlafly tirelessly campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution (\u201cERA\u201d). First drafted in 1923, the ERA stated that \u201c[e]quality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.\u201d The ERA failed to obtain ratification in the requisite number of states and Mrs. Schlafly is usually seen as a key architect of its demise. Mrs. Schlafly\u2019s death made me ponder what American law, particularly American Constitutional law, would have looked like without her \u2013 that is, with an ERA. Would an ERA have allowed Title VII to have a bona fide occupational qualification, a provision that says that sex is a genuine job requirement for some employment? Would Geduldig v. Aiello (1974), the case finding that pregnancy discrimination was not an equal protection violation, have been decided differently …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"audience":[],"coauthors":[498],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\r\nWhy are Feminist Judgments Necessary? - Voices at Temple<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why are Feminist Judgments Necessary? - Voices at Temple\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week marked the passing of Phyllis Schlafly, who arguably did more to undermine the equal rights of women than any other woman in United States history. As most know, Mrs. Schlafly tirelessly campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution (\u201cERA\u201d). First drafted in 1923, the ERA stated that \u201c[e]quality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.\u201d The ERA failed to obtain ratification in the requisite number of states and Mrs. Schlafly is usually seen as a key architect of its demise. Mrs. Schlafly\u2019s death made me ponder what American law, particularly American Constitutional law, would have looked like without her \u2013 that is, with an ERA. Would an ERA have allowed Title VII to have a bona fide occupational qualification, a provision that says that sex is a genuine job requirement for some employment? Would Geduldig v. Aiello (1974), the case finding that pregnancy discrimination was not an equal protection violation, have been decided differently …\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Voices at Temple\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-12T17:56:50+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/supreme-court-544218_1920.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1536\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kathryn Stanchi\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kathryn Stanchi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Beckie Schatschneider\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/505b7875ef49205bf81379b92d47f94e\"},\"headline\":\"Why are Feminist Judgments Necessary?\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-12T17:56:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":598,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/cms\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/09\\\/supreme-court-544218_1920.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Faculty Commentary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why are Feminist Judgments Necessary? - Voices at Temple\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/cms\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/09\\\/supreme-court-544218_1920.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-12T17:56:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/505b7875ef49205bf81379b92d47f94e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/cms\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/09\\\/supreme-court-544218_1920.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/cms\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/09\\\/supreme-court-544218_1920.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1536},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/feminist-judgments-necessary\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why are Feminist Judgments Necessary?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/\",\"name\":\"Voices at Temple\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/505b7875ef49205bf81379b92d47f94e\",\"name\":\"Beckie Schatschneider\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/62b6c5fa1068c42262dab498d74cb3fc60fbba8344047dc13348bd3aacf7b70a?s=96&d=mm&r=g9dc77189f33a293d2c82a50cd24ebb9f\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/62b6c5fa1068c42262dab498d74cb3fc60fbba8344047dc13348bd3aacf7b70a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/62b6c5fa1068c42262dab498d74cb3fc60fbba8344047dc13348bd3aacf7b70a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Beckie Schatschneider\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/author\\\/rschatsc\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why are Feminist Judgments Necessary? - Voices at Temple","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why are Feminist Judgments Necessary? - Voices at Temple","og_description":"Last week marked the passing of Phyllis Schlafly, who arguably did more to undermine the equal rights of women than any other woman in United States history. As most know, Mrs. Schlafly tirelessly campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution (\u201cERA\u201d). First drafted in 1923, the ERA stated that \u201c[e]quality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.\u201d The ERA failed to obtain ratification in the requisite number of states and Mrs. Schlafly is usually seen as a key architect of its demise. Mrs. Schlafly\u2019s death made me ponder what American law, particularly American Constitutional law, would have looked like without her \u2013 that is, with an ERA. Would an ERA have allowed Title VII to have a bona fide occupational qualification, a provision that says that sex is a genuine job requirement for some employment? Would Geduldig v. Aiello (1974), the case finding that pregnancy discrimination was not an equal protection violation, have been decided differently …","og_url":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/","og_site_name":"Voices at Temple","article_published_time":"2016-09-12T17:56:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1536,"url":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/supreme-court-544218_1920.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kathryn Stanchi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kathryn Stanchi","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/"},"author":{"name":"Beckie Schatschneider","@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/#\/schema\/person\/505b7875ef49205bf81379b92d47f94e"},"headline":"Why are Feminist Judgments Necessary?","datePublished":"2016-09-12T17:56:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/"},"wordCount":598,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/supreme-court-544218_1920.jpg","articleSection":["Faculty Commentary"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/","url":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/","name":"Why are Feminist Judgments Necessary? - Voices at Temple","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/supreme-court-544218_1920.jpg","datePublished":"2016-09-12T17:56:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/#\/schema\/person\/505b7875ef49205bf81379b92d47f94e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/supreme-court-544218_1920.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/supreme-court-544218_1920.jpg","width":1920,"height":1536},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/feminist-judgments-necessary\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why are Feminist Judgments Necessary?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/","name":"Voices at Temple","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/#\/schema\/person\/505b7875ef49205bf81379b92d47f94e","name":"Beckie Schatschneider","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b6c5fa1068c42262dab498d74cb3fc60fbba8344047dc13348bd3aacf7b70a?s=96&d=mm&r=g9dc77189f33a293d2c82a50cd24ebb9f","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b6c5fa1068c42262dab498d74cb3fc60fbba8344047dc13348bd3aacf7b70a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b6c5fa1068c42262dab498d74cb3fc60fbba8344047dc13348bd3aacf7b70a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Beckie Schatschneider"},"url":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/author\/rschatsc\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/supreme-court-544218_1920.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1652,"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions\/1652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}