President Joe Biden announced that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) should be considered the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, despite others declaring that ERA could not be certified.
“It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people,” Biden said in a 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.”
Archivist Colleen Shogan and Deputy Archivist William J. Bosanko said in a December joint statement that the 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 OLC concluded that extending or removing the deadline requires new action by Congress or the courts,” they said. “Court decisions at both the District and Circuit levels have affirmed that the ratification deadlines established by Congress for the ERA are valid. Therefore, the Archivist of the United States cannot legally publish the Equal Rights Amendment. As the leaders of the National Archives, we will abide by these legal precedents and support the constitutional framework in which we operate.”
The deadline to ratify the ERA as a constitutional amendment was June 30, 1982. According to the American Bar Association (ABA), however, Virginia’s 2020 ratification of the ERA meant that the law met the requirement to be ratified by three-fourths of states. The congressionally set deadline was seemingly irrelevant.
“I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution,” Biden said.
