Biden Declares Equal Rights Amendment the 28th Amendment as National Archives Says It Cannot Certify It
President Joe Biden issued a statement on January 17, 2025, declaring that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has met all requirements to become the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The statement, delivered three days before he left office, was his final word on a constitutional question disputed for more than half a century.
Biden said he had supported the amendment for more than 50 years; that on January 27, 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it, reaching the three-fourths threshold required by Article V; and that the American Bar Association has recognized that the ERA has cleared all necessary hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution. "I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution," he said. "The 28th amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex." The amendment's text provides that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
The statement carries no practical legal effect. When Congress sent the ERA to the states in 1972 it attached a ratification deadline, which expired in 1982 — the crux of the dispute over its validity. Colleen Shogan, the Archivist of the United States, who is charged with certifying and publishing amendments, said in December 2024 that, based on established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions, the Archives cannot certify the ERA; the White House confirmed the same day that Biden would not direct the Archivist to certify and publish it. Legal experts note that Article V assigns the president no role in the amendment process.
(Source: The White House)
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国国家档案馆大楼。（CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons） / Photo: The U.S. National Archives Building in Washington. (CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
