Legal and constitutional expert analyses, official government statements

Biden Declares Equal Rights Amendment 'Law of the Land' as 28th Amendment, Despite Legal Uncertainty

Jan 17, 2025, 07:05 PM

In his final days in office, President Joe Biden announced that he considers the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to be the 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution, declaring it the "law of the land." Biden stated, "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." The ERA, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, was first passed by Congress in 1972 but failed to be ratified before the 1982 deadline set by Congress. Recent approvals by three states, including Virginia in 2020 as the 38th state, led Biden to assert that the amendment has met the necessary ratification threshold. However, the amendment's legal status remains uncertain, as the National Archives and Records Administration has indicated that the ERA cannot be certified due to established legal and procedural decisions, and the Archivist has confirmed that the ERA has not been ratified. Biden is not ordering the Archivist to publish the amendment, and his symbolic declaration has sparked debate over the amendment's validity and the extent of presidential authority in the constitutional amendment process.