John,

All President Biden has to do to make the Equal Rights Amendment part of the Constitution is tell the Archivist to publish it.

In August 2023, Biden had this to say in support of it:

“It is long past time to definitively enshrine the principle of gender equality in the Constitution. Together we can and must build a future where our daughters have all the same rights and opportunities as our sons, where all women and girls have a chance to realize their God-given potential, and where we can finally realize the full promise of America for all Americans.”

But this statement came after Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema had refused to vote against the filibuster, and after the April 2023 Senate vote to extend an arbitrary 10-year time limit for ratification had failed even though it received a majority of 51 votes.

The ERA was passed by both houses of Congress in 1972, and then required ratification by 3/4 of the states. The version sent to the states did not include the arbitrary time limit, but when the original time limit came in 1979, it was still 3 states shy of the required 38. President Carter was able to extend the limit to 1982, but by then none of the 3 missing states had budged.

Advocates kept fighting for it, arguing the time limit was not constitutional in the first place, and in January 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify. The ERA had jumped through all the hoops, and was ready to go to the Archivist to be published as the 28th Amendment.  

However, in a terrible irony, on January 6, 2020, on the very day Trump’s mob invaded the Capitol, Trump’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a memo instructing the Archivist not to publish the Amendment.

That’s right. The President who at that moment was leading an organized, violent coup against the United States, blocked the Equal Rights Amendment from becoming part of the same U.S. Constitution he was so eagerly dismantling.

Enough is enough. Tell President Biden: Now is the time to tell the new Archivist to publish the 28th Amendment and guarantee equal rights for all Americans.

Now, President Biden has one last chance to stand for equity and equality, by telling the Archivist of the United States to publish the Equal Rights Amendment.

The Equal Rights Amendment would provide Constitutional protections to women and the LGBTQ+ community, grounding our democracy in fundamental human equality under the law.

In August, 2024, the American Bar Association issued this statement:

“RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association supports the principle that any time limit for ratification of an amendment to the United States Constitution is not consistent with Article V of the Constitution; FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association supports the principle that Article V does not permit a state to rescind its ratification of an amendment to the Constitution.”

Now, 100+ years after its first proposal in 1923, as courts and lawmakers aggressively seek to roll back the rights of women and LGBTQ+ persons, President Biden must take the simple step of telling the Archivist to publish the Amendment immediately, ensuring equality for every American as a part of his presidential legacy.

Tell President Biden: The time to enshrine equal rights for All Americans is now. Instruct the Archivist to publish the 28th Amendment without any further delay.

Thank you for standing in solidarity and fighting for all of our rights.

- Amanda

Amanda Ford, Director
Democracy for America
Advocacy Fund