Biden Has One Last Troll for Trump With Constitution Claim
President Joe Biden announced that he considers the Equal Rights Amendment “the law of the land” on Friday, a shock move that is unlikely to have any actual effect.
The ERA, a constitutional amendment that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, was first introduced in the 1970s. It took until 2020 for enough state legislatures to ratify the amendment, missing the deadline by decades.
The amendment would need to be certified and published by the national archivist, Colleen Shogan, to come into effect. Biden said on Friday that he would not order Shogan to certify the ERA.
It’s unclear why Biden waited until the final days of his presidency to acknowledge the ERA’s passage.
“It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people,” Biden said in a written statement. “In keeping with my oath and duty to Constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex.”
Proponents of the amendment argue that the ratification deadline doesn’t apply because it was in the preamble of the document, not the text.
Still, Shogan said during her confirmation hearing in 2022 that Congress and the courts would decide the ERA’s fate. It’s unlikely that Biden’s eleventh hour declaration will have any effect.
The move comes after a campaign from Democratic lawmakers to certify the amendment. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said she expects the matter to end up before the Supreme Court.
