Joe Biden declared the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) the “law of the land” on Friday, January 17. Passed by Congress in 1972, the ERA would have become the 28th Amendment to the US Constitution had it been ratified by enough states. It was not – well, not until 2020, in any case. Unfortunately for its champions, the legislation only had seven years to achieve ratification – ten, after a three-year extension was granted – not the 48 years it actually took.
Just shy of 12,000 constitutional amendments have been proposed since the original document took effect in 1789. Of those, Congress has passed by two-thirds votes in both chambers a mere 33 – just 27 of which have been ratified by the required three-quarters of the states. Or so that’s what the official history of America tells us – and there’s the rub. Many believe an alternate version of history in which a 28th Amendment was ratified.
The House passed the ERA in 1971, easily surpassing the required two-thirds majority, and the Senate followed suit in 1972. But that legislation included a deadline for states to ratify it. Initially, it was seven years. Congress later added another three years in hopes that with just a few more years, enough states would sign on to the idea.
It simply didn’t happen. By the end of the seven-year period, only 35 states had voted to ratify the amendment. It took nearly half a century for the amendment to be ratified by a 38th state, well beyond the time limit. To make matters worse for the progressive left, five states – Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee, and South Dakota – tried to rescind their ratification before the first seven years were even up. Now, the legality of a state voting to un-ratify an amendment has always been a big question mark. Ultimately, however, it only matters if Virgina’s 2020 ratification vote or any of the others that came late are, for some reason, considered valid.
“Today I’m affirming what I have long believed and what three-fourths of the states have ratified,” Biden announced Friday on X. “The 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex.”
His administration admits that the declaration amounts to little more than Biden’s personal belief and that he doesn’t plan to direct the Archivist of the United States to record the ERA as the 28th Amendment. In fact, there’s no indication he can. The Constitution requires Congress to introduce an amendment by a two-thirds majority vote in each chamber, then three-quarters of the states have to ratify it successfully with a majority vote in each legislature. Once that occurs, the Archivist of the United States records the amendment, and it’s officially in the Constitution. The president is entirely outside the process.
Archivist Dr. Colleen Shogan and Deputy Archivist William J. Bosanko released an announcement a month ago, and when queried by the media, they pointed back to it. At the time, they wrote:
“As Archivist and Deputy Archivist of the United States, it is our responsibility to uphold the integrity of the constitutional amendment process and ensure that changes to the Constitution are carried out in accordance with the law. At this time, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) cannot be certified as part of the Constitution due to established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions.
“In 2020 and again in 2022, the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice affirmed that the ratification deadline established by Congress for the ERA is valid and enforceable.”
“The role of the Archivist of the United States is to follow the law as it stands, ensuring the integrity of our nation’s governing institutions,” the statement continued later. “Personal opinion or beliefs are not relevant, as the leaders of the National Archives, we support established legal processes and decisions.”
And that’s pretty much it. Why Biden brought up this old ghost is anyone’s guess. Perhaps he thinks he can cement his legacy without actually taking action – or maybe he legitimately believes the ERA is now law. He seems to believe a good many things that aren’t true. Imagine, if you will, a world in which reality is determined by Joe Biden’s beliefs. Yes, the ERA would be the law of the land. Also, the Second Amendment would not protect the rights of Americans to defend themselves from a tyrannical government – and it would be and would have always been illegal for a private citizen to own a cannon.
The United States would be a democracy; unity would mean everyone agrees with him, and Joe Biden himself would have been arrested with Nelson Mandela during a civil rights march here in the States. He would also somehow be both president and senator, as he once got confused about when campaigning for president and declared he was running for the Senate instead. Oh, and don’t forget that all the black people who weren’t sure whether to vote for him or not wouldn’t actually be black anymore!
To quote Thomas Jipping, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, “If he wants to personally believe that, that’s fine, but it has no legal effect whatsoever, and all of the evidence says that he’s wrong.” Biden can believe whatever he wants – but neither the American people, the rest of the government, nor even reality itself are obliged to indulge him.