I’ve said before that everyone can be an activist because everyone has reach. Some have more and some have less, but even if you think your reach is small, using it can have a large effect. This is a story about an AMERICAblog reader who used her reach to question Dem. House member Henry Waxman (CA-33) at a town hall meeting about his support for Chained CPI. She asked him if he would sign the strong Grayson-Takano No Cuts letter (promising a No vote on any benefit cuts).

It turns out Waxman won’t sign the letter and does support Chained CPI if the price is right — who knew? Thanks to Kim Kaufman, we do.

This story is important for several reasons:

? It shows that a person acting alone can have an effect (you don’t need permission to do things).

? It makes the point again about one way to blackmail progressives — just put a hostage in the bill. (Our discussion of using hostages to line up progressive support for bad ideas is here.)

? And finally, it shows that in Rep. Waxman’s case, it wouldn’t be blackmail, since he seems ready to deal if the price is right. As Waxman told his town hall audience:

“I can see possibilities that some things that we don’t like may be in a final budget and that will get us a lot of things we do want.”

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Mr. President, as we prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday, today I am introducing a joint resolution which would remove the deadline for the states' ratification of the equal rights amendment, ERA. I thank Senators Kirk, Mikulski, Murkowski, Harkin, Sanders, Levin, Menendez, Stabenow, Heinrich, Boxer, Gillibrand, Durbin, Lautenberg, Murphy, Baldwin, Landrieu, Brown, and Begich for joining me as original cosponsors.

When Congress passed the ERA in 1972, it provided that the measure had to be ratified by 3/4 of the States, 38 States, within 7 years. This deadline was later extended to 10 years by a joint resolution enacted by Congress, but ultimately only 35 out of 38 States had ratified the ERA when the deadline expired in 1982.

Congress has the authority to give the states another chance, and should do so. In 1992, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting immediate Congressional pay raises was ratified after 203 years. Article V of the Constitution contains no time limits for ratification of constitutional amendments, and the ERA time limit was contained in a joint resolution, not the actual text of the amendment.

The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution requires ``equal protection of the laws,'' and the Supreme Court has so far held that most sex or gender classifications are subject to only ``intermediate scrutiny'' when analyzing laws that may have a discriminatory impact. In 2011 Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave an interview in which he stated that ``certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn't.'' Ratification of the ERA by state legislatures would provide the courts with clearer guidance in holding gender or sex classifications to the ``strict scrutiny'' standard.

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