(DCNF)—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.”
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.
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Biden’s announcement was released as the president has only days remaining in office.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
