Potty Law Suit Plagues Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity," Says Father of Potty Parity

Oct. 21, 2010 - PRLog -- Jon Stewart's threat to have unenclosed toilets at his "Rally to Restore Sanity" on the Washington Mall has been met with the threat of a law suit by the "Father of Potty Parity," whose legal threats helped persuade organizers of President Barack Obama's inauguration to provide additional potable toilets, and to make them gender neutral.  SEE his interview inside a porta potty on MSNBC's Morning Joe at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#28732684

Banzhaf says he sides with Stephen Colbert, whose interview with Banzhaf was featured on "The Daily Show," because his staunch conservative values would prevent him from exploiting women by forcing them to drop their drawer in public at his "March to Keep Fear Alive." http://banzhaf.net/docs/smokism.wmv

"Our nation's second highest court has held that forcing women to urinate in unenclosed areas without privacy protection constitutes illegal sex discrimination, even if men have no choice but to do the same," says public interest law professor John Banzhaf of George Washington University.

Therefore, Comedy Central will be in violation of both federal and DC anti-discrimination laws if they use unenclosed toilets and/or force attendees to urinate outdoors, as Stewart threatened when he said: "I guess what I'm saying is we will either have toilets, or we will have shovels."  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2010/10/larry-kin...

"Comedy Central will find it to be no laughing matter if they are faced with a multi-million dollar class action law suit by the "Father of Potty Parity" on behalf of tens of thousands of women denied their squatters' rights at his rally," says Banzhaf.  Here, in the words of one judge, is why Stewart's proposed solution would violate laws against sex discrimination:

When people are forced "to relieve themselves outdoors, the burden falls more heavily on women than it does on men. Not simply because women may be more reticent about relieving themselves in the open, I might add. The fact is, biology has given men less to do in the restroom and made it much easier for them to do it.  If men are less reluctant to urinate outdoors, it is in significant part because they need only unzip and take aim."

The judicial opinion also noted that: "although public urination is potentially a crime whether committed by a man or a woman, the risk of being caught in the act is arguably greater for women, for whom it is a more cumbersome, awkward, and time-consuming proposition.  For all of these reasons, I agree with my brothers that an employer's failure to provide restroom facilities for its workforce can support a disparate-impact claim for female employees."

Potty parity problems plagued visitors to the Mall as far back as the Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, notes Banzhaf.  He says he's proud to stand up for the rights of those who can't stand up while exercising their own rights to relieve themselves after listening to Jon Stewart.

Prof. Banzhaf Banzhaf wrote the first scholarly article about how women's rights can be violated if they are forced to wait for substantially longer periods of time to relieve themselves.  In his "Final Frontier For the Law," he proudly went where no man has gone before, explaining why women take far longer than men when they go to the restroom, and paving the way for the modern potty parity movement -- including a potty parity bill now before Congress.

Banzhaf -- somewhat tongue in cheek -- encourages women to continue to complain -- and to sue if necessary -- about being under-privyledged and about the lack of urinequity which often causes them to wait a sheturnity in pee-gatory and suffer assault and bladdery, while men-no-pause and zip in, up, and out of restrooms exercising a male pee-rogative and causing some women real penis envy -- although some call it simply menvy.

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
FELLOW, World Technology Network
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/