Biden says the Equal Rights Amendment should be considered ratified

President Joe Biden announced Friday that the Equal Rights Amendment should be considered a ratified addition to the U.S. Constitution, making a symbolic statement unlikely to change the decades-long push for gender equality.

“It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people,” Biden said. “In keeping with my oath and duty to the Constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-quarters of the states have ratified: The Twenty-Eighth Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protection under the law regardless.” Of their gender.”

The Democrat’s statement, which comes days before he is replaced by Republican Donald Trump, will likely have no impact. Presidents have no role in the amendment process. The head of the National Archives had earlier said that the amendment could not be ratified because it had not been ratified before the deadline set by Congress.

On Friday, the National Archives reiterated that position, saying that “the basic legal and procedural issues have not changed.”

A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the White House’s plans, said Biden did not direct the archivist to certify the amendment, avoiding what could have become a legal fight over the separation of powers.

“Do your job”

Activists gathered outside the National Archives to celebrate Biden’s statement and demand the archivist take action.

“Do your job,” said Zakiya Thomas, president of the ERA Alliance. “The president did what he had to do.”

Claudia Nashega, a leader in the Young Feminist Party, said that ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment would signal “the beginning of a new American era that gives us a fighting chance to survive Trump’s second presidency.”

The Equal Rights Amendment, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, was sent to the states for ratification in 1972. Congress set a deadline in 1979 for three-quarters of state legislatures to ratify the amendment, then extended it to 1982.

But it wasn’t until 2020, when Virginia lawmakers passed the amendment, that 38 states ratified it. Congress or the courts should change the deadline to consider the amendment as approved, the archivist said.