washington
CNN
—
President Joe Biden issued a significant opinion Friday that the Equal Rights Amendment would be ratified and its protections enshrined in the Constitution, a move some say could pave the way for stronger reproductive rights. It is a last minute measure that one believes.
However, this will surely provoke a swift legal challenge. And as Biden prepares to leave office, his next steps remain highly uncertain.
This amendment, passed by Congress in 1972, enshrines equal rights for women. A constitutional amendment would need to be ratified by three-quarters of the states, or 38 states. In 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the bill, which had been stalled for decades. Biden has now issued an opinion that the amendment will be ratified. It will then be up to US archivist Dr. Colleen Shogan to certify and publish this amendment.
“It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people. In accordance with my oath and duty to the Constitution and my nation, I affirm what I believe and which three-fourths of the states have ratified. The 28th Amendment is the law of the land and guarantees equal rights and protections under the law to all Americans regardless of their gender,” Biden said in a statement Friday.
A senior Biden administration official said the president has not taken any executive action but has “expressed the opinion that it will be ratified.”
“He used the power of the presidency to make clear that that’s not how it should be, that he believes it is the 28th Amendment, and that he agrees with leading constitutional scholars and the American Bar Association. ,” the official added. .
But legal experts say the situation is not that simple. According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, the ratification deadline has passed and five states have rescinded their approval, raising questions about the authority of presidents who have ratified amendments for more than 50 years since they were first passed. rear.
A senior Biden official said Biden was relying on an opinion from the American Bar Association, which “underscores that the Equal Rights Amendment does not include a time limit” and that “the framers of the Constitution wisely “It highlights the chaos that would ensue if it were avoided.” States could take back their ratification votes at any time. ”
Shogun, who will be responsible for announcing the amendment, said in a statement in December, along with Deputy Archivist William Bosanko, that the amendment is “unconstitutional because of established legal, judicial and procedural decisions. It cannot be recognized as part of the The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of General Counsel issued conclusions in 2020 and 2022 that found the ratification deadline enforceable.
CNN asked the National Archives for guidance on what the archivists are planning to do, and it referred to previous statements from Shogan and Bosanko, saying it has been “a long-standing position for the archivists and the National Archives.” said.
“The fundamental legal and procedural issues have not changed,” the National Archives’ public and media communications staff said Friday.
The official could not say whether the White House had been in contact with the archivist before Friday’s announcement.
Speaking to CNN about the archivist’s December statement, the official said the archivist’s role is “statutory” and “purely ministerial” and that “the proposed amendments effectively “Once it is ratified, we have an obligation to make it public.”
Ultimately, the official acknowledged, “it’s up to the courts to interpret this and their view of the Equal Rights Amendment.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, has been a big push for certification, and in a memo to officials, she urged Biden to “free up women’s freedom without needing anything from a bitterly divided and broken Congress.” “It gives us a way to codify equality.” ” In the aftermath of the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Biden took several executive actions to protect abortion rights in response to the decision, but the White House had essentially exhausted its options by the time Congress codified Roe’s protections. , that possibility remains low.
Ms. Gillibrand pressed her case against the president’s inner circle and outside allies, including appealing to Mr. Biden and the first lady during a photo shoot at a holiday party, according to people familiar with the exchanges. She was in contact with the White House Counsel’s Office, the Gender Policy Council, and other officials involved in the issue.
Biden spent his final days in office pushing through a number of executive actions, enacting major legislation and strengthening foreign policy, and on Friday announced an effort to strengthen his legacy and protect it from the president. He announced two high-stakes decisions that emphasize this. Elect Donald Trump.
Still, little will be irreversible when President Trump returns to the White House on Monday. Just as Mr. Biden spent his first hours in office reversing some of Mr. Trump’s biggest moves, rejoining international agreements and signing executive orders, Mr. Trump also Many items on the agenda may be cancelled.
Mr. Biden’s recent actions — pardoning approximately 2,500 nonviolent drug offenders and affirming the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment — have mixed durability in the next administration. While clemency cannot be reversed, the ERA’s move is certain to provoke legal challenges.
Friday’s move joins a series of recent uses of executive authority by Biden as his team works to follow Chief of Staff Jeff Zients’ post-election call to “follow through on the tape.” It is something that will be added.
Since the November election, Biden has leaned toward the president’s pardon powers, pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, commuting the sentences of 1,500 nonviolent offenders, and converting 37 federal death sentences to life sentences. The sentence was commuted to Biden also pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who had a gun and tax conviction, a move that has drawn criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
He issued an executive order banning new oil and gas drilling on 625 million acres of ocean, an action that drew the ire of President Trump. The ban would prevent oil companies from leasing waters for new drilling along the entire East Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California, and parts of the Bering Sea in northern Alaska. For President Trump to reverse this measure, Congress would need to amend the law.
In another environmental legacy move, Biden designated two national monuments in California, bringing the total area of federally protected lands to 674 million acres, or 1,053,125 square miles. This is nearly four times the land and ocean area of Texas.
As President Trump prepares to crack down on immigration, President Biden expanded Temporary Protection status to nearly 1 million immigrants from Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine and Sudan, protecting them from deportation for an additional 18 months.
The Biden administration removed Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, but this step is likely to be reversed by the incoming Trump team.
As Biden nears the end of his term in office, his team is canceling the student loan debt of an additional 150,000 student loan borrowers to ensure that the funds approved will be available to prepare for Trump’s inauguration. The government is pushing ahead with finalizing subsidies for semiconductor chip manufacturing.
However, there are some aspects on which Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are on the same page. The president blocked the sale of U.S. Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel, a rare area of agreement between the two. The Biden and Trump teams were also moving at a fast pace to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
The president is also considering the possibility of pre-emptive pardons for some political allies, an unprecedented move as he warned Trump not to try to “settle scores.” . That decision will likely be made before President Trump takes the oath of office, officials said.
Trump, who tried to block the transfer of power after losing the 2020 presidential election, claimed in a social media post that Biden was “doing everything in his power to make the transition as difficult as possible.” did. President Trump said in his post that all of Biden’s executive orders “will soon be lifted.”
