Fair pay: Women still not getting even

As the Boston Globe editorialized today:

Of all the retrograde reasons to oppose the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act, the one offered by Senator John McCain on Wednesday takes the cake. Ledbetter, who earned $18,000 less than her male counterparts at a Goodyear tire plant for doing the same job, lost her case in the US Supreme Court last year because of a narrow interpretation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The bill that Senate Republicans killed on Wednesday would have clarified that section of the law. McCain, who didn't even leave the campaign trail to cast a vote, complained that it "opens us up to lawsuits," which is exactly the point. For McCain to say he is for pay equity for women but not for their right to sue to achieve it reveals a basic misunderstanding of US civil rights law