Biden says Equal Rights Amendment passed, but doesn’t force legal fight

President Biden said Friday that he believes the Equal Rights Amendment has met the requirements for ratification and is therefore now part of the Constitution, but he refused to order the government to finalize the process by publishing it officially.

“In accordance with my oath and my duty to the Constitution and the country, I affirm what I believe and what three-quarters of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans the rights and equal protections under the law, regardless of the law. of their gender,” Mr. Biden said in a statement.

However, according to the Constitution, the president has no direct role in approving amendments and his declaration apparently has no legal force in itself. The Biden-appointed Archivist of the United States has so far refused to formally publish the amendment on the grounds that it does not meet the requirements to become part of the Constitution.

Aides said Mr. Biden was not ordering the archivist to reverse her position and issue the amendment, but advocates said they thought it was possible she viewed his public statement as a guidance enabling him to do so. The archivist had no immediate comment, leaving the status of the amendment unclear.

Mr. Biden’s decision to weigh in just three days before leaving office on an issue that has divided the country for generations amounted to a remarkable last-ditch effort to bring about profound change and shape his own legacy, but it was unclear whether it was simply a symbolic act on his part or a gesture that would result in action by the archivist.

The Equal Rights Amendment was first proposed more than a century ago and took a circuitous route to ratification. Although it was passed by Congress in 1972 and ratified in subsequent years by most states, it did not reach the constitutionally required three-quarters mark until January 2020, when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it.