VETO POWER. On Friday the White House announced that even if Congress passes legislation reversing the Ledbetter ruling, Bush will veto it. The statement (pdf) said such legislation would "serve to impede justice" and "allegations from thirty years ago or more could be resurrected and filed in federal courts." The basic argument the right is making on this (on the Court and in the White House) is that 180 days is more than enough time for a discrimination filing to take place (even though most states already allow for up to 300 days) . As I've written before, it's rare to obtain knowledge of pay disparities with any certainty in such a short period of time, and often the initial disparity is so small it sometimes takes several years to discover the full effect. As long as Republicans control the White House, though, there seems to be little chance for any real efforts to combat discrimination.
-- Kay Steiger
