President Joe Biden released a statement Friday declaring that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) “has become part of our Constitution.”
Biden asserted that as of 2020, 38 states have ratified the amendment and stated it should now be recognized as “the law of the land,” according to a White House press release. The amendment is meant to ensure equal rights for men and women in the U.S., but some interpretations of the text have implied it would erase gender distinctions and grant abortion protections.
“The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized that the Equal Rights Amendment has cleared all necessary hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment,” the White House statement reads. “I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution.”
“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,” Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan and Deputy Archivist William J. Bosanko said in a statement in Dec. 2024. “At this time, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) cannot be certified as part of the Constitution due to established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions.”
The National Archives informed the Daily Caller News Foundation that this remains their position and that “the underlying legal and procedural issues have not changed.”
“Equality is a fundamental promise of our democracy,” Vice President Kamala Harris wrote in a statement Friday. “That is why the Equal Rights Amendment belongs in our Constitution. It makes our nation stronger, and it is the law of the land because the American people have spoken in states across our nation.”
The amendment was passed by Congress in 1972 but failed to be ratified by the required three-quarters of states within the seven-year deadline.
Biden’s announcement was released as the president has only two full days remaining in office.
Former Democratic Missouri Rep. Cori Bush and Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley revived the push for the amendment in 2023, stating its necessity due to “Women and LGBTQ folks facing daily sexism, pregnancy discrimination, pay inequity, sexual violence, and persistent legislative attacks on our bodily autonomy.”
The ERA could potentially eliminate single-sex spaces — such as bathrooms and locker rooms — as it does not define “sex” and could be interpreted to include gender identity.
Biden previously tried to rewrite of Title IX to include protections for “gender identity,” though this rule was ultimately shot down by a federal court in January and later revoked by the administration.
The White House did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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