One of the subplots of the episode had Sam Seaborn and Ainsley Hayes (the blond Republican lawyer who was played by Emily Procter before she left the show for CSI Miami) arguing about the merits of the Equal Rights Amendment. Toward the end, Ainsley pretty much ends the argument with this bit of impassioned dialogue:
"Becuase it's humiliating. A new Amendment we vote on declaring that I'm equal under the law to a man? I am mortified to discover there's reason to believe I wasn't before. I am a citizen of this country, I am not a special sub-set in need of your protection, I do not have to have my rights handed down to me by a bunch of old, white, men."
Upon hearing that line again, last night, I was immediately reminded of this: the ceremony at which President Bush signed the ban of partial-birth abortion into law:
Interesting bit of congruity, that.