Women "Aren't Discriminated Against Anymore"

by: Dean Barker

Mon Oct 17, 2011 at 19:15:31 PM EDT

   How about the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment? Does [Bork] still think it shouldn't apply to women?

   "Yeah," he answers. "I think I feel justified by the fact ever since then, the Equal Protection Clause kept expanding in ways that cannot be justified historically, grammatically, or any other way. Women are a majority of the population now-a majority in university classrooms and a majority in all kinds of contexts. It seems to me silly to say, 'Gee, they're discriminated against and we need to do something about it.' They aren't discriminated against anymore."

The New Hampshire Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said in its report that the inexcusable disparities warrant action by New Hampshire to end the unequal treatment of female inmates. A spokesman for the Department of Corrections said the agency supports the committee's findings.

"When we visited the women's prison, the sheer noise, constant noise, we walked in, until we left... everybody is crushed together, and all of the announcements over the loudspeakers, it was just constant, constant, constant, there was no quiet."

... Professor Jordan Budd says the report highlights the inexcusable inequities between the treatment of men and women, like the difference in vocational training programs.

"The industry program at the men's facility in Concord, includes, a wood working shop, there's an upholstery shop, there's a plate shop, a machine shop, there's an entire wing of the facility. The industry program at Goffstown consists of three sewing machines."

Of course, so long as 21st century New Hampshire is ruled by an 18th century revenue system, the bottom 20% will continue to pay more than four times what the top 1% pay in taxes on every dollar earned.

So don't expect this gross civil rights violation to be fixed by us with a new women's prison anytime soon. And clearly, don't expect President Romney to do anything.

In fact, with the Bill O'Brien budget and its decimation of services like CHINS, expect this problem to get worse.

(find me > 140 on birch paper; on Twitter < 140)