Quote:
Originally Posted by talloulou
Does the US military treat women and men equally? No. Are they bound by the constitution to treat them equally. No.
The 14th amendment may be used to prohibit some forms of gender discrimination but it does not make gender discrimination constitutionally illegal the way an ERA would.
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Good point.
It has become a fad of some folks to view the 14th Amendment as a 'blank check' sort of Amendment, by trying to make anything fit under the equal protection clause. So broad is such an approach that anything--literally any interpretation by which one claims some 'right'--could be spun as justified. It's almost as if the 14th has come to be considered by some a sort of constitution in and of itself (by 'priders, at least). No NEED for the rest, when one takes that sort of all-encompassing view of the 14th! To make the 14th fit gay marriage, it could be argued for
anything, pretty much. It's the closest thing they've remotely been able to find to a gay-marriage amendment, and the fact they've had to co-opt a racism amendment in order to do that is pretty telling. To use the 14th in such a flippant, blank-check sort of way judicially is VERY dangerous precedent.