Three days from the end of his term, President Biden just announced that he has "long believed" the Equal Rights Amendment to be valid law:
I have supported the Equal Rights Amendment for more than 50 years, and I have long been clear that no one should be discriminated against based on their sex. We, as a nation, must affirm and protect women's full equality once and for all.
On January 27, 2020, the Commonwealth of Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized that the Equal Rights Amendment has cleared all necessary hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment. I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution.
It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people. In keeping with my oath and duty to Constitution and country, 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.
Although nothing has changed legally for the ERA since 2020, Biden has never taken this position before. He isn't ordering the Archivist of the United States to publish the amendment (which she has said she cannot lawfully do), and under his Administration the Department of Justice declined to assert the ERA's validity and defended the decision not to publish it.
