Biden Tries to Resurrect the Equal Rights Amendment

Joe Biden declared the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) the “law of the land” on Friday, January 17. Congress first passed the amendment back in the 70s, but it failed to be ratified by the required 38 states until decades after the deadline had passed. When Virginia became the 38th state to ratify in 2020, however, the left rejoiced. Unfortunately for them, ratifying the ERA more than forty years after its deadline doesn’t make it legitimate.

Just shy of 12,000 constitutional amendments have been proposed since the original document took effect in 1789. Of those, Congress has approved a mere 33 – and just 27 have then been ratified by the required number of states. Or so that’s what the official history of America tells us – and there’s the rub. Some – like Biden – claim to 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 little more time, enough states would sign on to the idea.

It simply didn’t happen. Only 35 states voted to ratify the amendment by the initial deadline. It took nearly half a century for the amendment to be ratified by a 38th state, well beyond the time limit even with an extension. 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.

Biden’s Beliefs Divorced From Reality – But That’s Nothing New

“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.”

The White House later clarified that Biden didn’t plan to direct the Archivist of the United States to record the ERA as the 28th Amendment, even though the president personally believes it’s valid. According to the amendment process laid out in the Constitution, there’s no indication he could do so anyway – the president is entirely outside of the process.

First, both houses of Congress have to approve an amendment bill by two-thirds majority. Then three-quarters of the states must vote to ratify it. Once that happens, the archivist records it and the process is over. There’s nothing for the president to do.

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.