UNEXPECTEDLY: National Archives rebuffs Biden’s attempt to add Equal Rights Amendment to Constitution.
The National Archives poured cold water Friday on President Biden’s declaration that the Equal Rights Amendment is now part of the Constitution, saying courts and Mr. Biden’s own Justice Department have rejected that notion.
Mr. Biden issued a statement saying he believed that 38 states have ratified the ERA, which would be enough to make it the 28th Amendment.
But the National Archives and Records Administration, the official keeper of the Constitution as a document, said it stands by its decision — announced last month — that the ratifications didn’t happen before the deadline.
“Court decisions at both the district and circuit levels have affirmed that the ratification deadlines established by Congress for the ERA are valid. Therefore, the Archivist of the United States cannot legally publish the Equal Rights Amendment,” the agency’s leaders said at the time.
The Archives said Friday that has been “a long-standing position” and Mr. Biden’s announcement doesn’t change “the underlying legal and procedural issues.”
The key point is whether the ERA, which was passed by Congress in 1972 and was sent to the states for ratification, has amassed the 38 states needed.
Just 35 had ratified the amendment by 1979, which was the deadline set by Congress. Capitol Hill then approved a three-year extension of the deadline, but that came and went with no new ratifications.
In 2017, Nevada belatedly voted for approval, followed by Illinois in 2018 and Virginia in 2020. ERA backers said that was enough to cross the finish line.
But that argument was rejected by federal courts that ruled the deadline had passed.
Mr. Biden’s Justice Department has also ruled that the deadlines are valid and the post-deadline ratifications cannot be counted.
Charles Cooke tweets, “I’m trying to get inside the head of anyone—Biden included, if he’s aware of it—who thought that it would be a good idea for the president of the United States to tweet out that he was unilaterally declaring that the Constitution had been amended. It’s so deliciously humiliating,” adding, “And not just humiliating for Biden and his team. Humiliating for all those people who said Biden was a decent guy who respects the law and America’s institutions and were rewarded with the student-loan grab, eviction moratorium, pardon of Hunter, and now this. It’s hilarious.”
Ed Morrissey writes: More Biden: I Hereby Commute ERA’s 1982 Deadline Too.
Presidents don’t get to overrule the courts, nor do they get to declare what is and is not in the Constitution. What makes this so outrageous is that Biden just warned against executive abuse of authority less than two days ago in his farewell address to the nation, proclaiming himself the hero of checks and balances:
After 50 years at the center of all of this, I know that believing in the idea of America means respecting the institutions that govern a free society: the presidency, the Congress, the courts, a free and independent press. Institutions that are rooted not — they just — not to reflect the timeless words, but they re- — they — they echo the words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Rooted in the timeless words of the Constitution, “We the People.”
Our system of separation of powers, checks and balances, it may not be perfect, but it’s maintained our democracy for nearly 250 years — longer than any other nation in history that’s ever tried such a bold experiment.
And in fact, Biden used this to demand that the states amend the Constitution to limit presidential power even further:
We need to amend the Constitution to make clear that no president — no president — is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office. The president’s power is limit- — it’s not absolute, and it shouldn’t be.
It’s not and it isn’t, not even under Trump v US, which only recognized that official presidential acts are checked by Congress and not local DAs trying to conduct political lawfare. But Biden sure seems to think that his own power is unlimited when it comes to not only interpreting the Constitution but determining its contents, too.
Who is writing the material that appear under Biden’s name in his last days? The old Russian joke, “If only the Czar knew,” takes on new meaning as Brandon shuffles the halls in his last days in office.
