#equal rights amendment

Eli Stokols and Adam Cancryn at Politico:

President Joe Biden on Friday declared that the Equal Rights Amendment is the law of the land, attempting to ratify a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in a last-ditch effort to protect women’s reproductive rights. But Biden’s assertion may amount to little more than an expression of his opinion, with the White House acknowledging that it has no immediate force of law — and wouldn’t order the nation’s archivist to formally add it to the Constitution. “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,” Biden said in a statement. “We, as a nation, must affirm and protect women’s full equality once and for all.”

The move, which states that Biden personally believes the ERA has cleared all the hurdles to ratification, would be unlikely to carry weight unless courts agree with him, a hurdle even White House officials conceded as they made the announcement. If successful, the long-shot gambit would provide a dramatic coda to the 50-year effort to get sex-based equality into the Constitution and bolster Biden’s policy record. In Biden’s final days before turning the Oval Office over to President-elect Donald Trump, whose Supreme Court appointees helped to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, the statement on the ERA offered the departing president a final opportunity to push back at the laws that resulted from that decision in several states where lawmakers have restricted and even criminalized abortion procedures. The move shifts the spotlight to U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan, who is responsible for publishing amendments to the Constitution — but has previously said that the ERA’s eligibility has expired, and now could not be added unless Congress acts. Congress, under the control of Republicans, is unlikely to do so.

[...] The ERA would bar sex-based discrimination, including constraints on abortion, by states. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) argued last month in a New York Times op-ed, while urging Biden to formally direct the national archivist to add the ERA to the Constitution, that the amendment has met all the requirements for certification. It passed two-thirds of Congress in 1972 and, after sitting dormant for decades, was finally ratified by three-quarters of the states in 2020. But Donald Trump’s Justice Department said at the time that ratification took too long and the states missed the deadline. That’s a position Shogan supported in a statement last December. Biden disagrees, yet declined to force the issue by going as far as Gillibrand had requested and ordering the archivist to take action.

“On January 27, 2020, the Commonwealth of Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment,” Biden’s statement said. “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.” His statement concluded: “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.” The declaration is likely to win praise from advocates who have long pushed for the ERA’s recognition. But the move, coming just three days before Biden leaves office, raised questions about why a president who the White House said has long harbored this opinion did not act sooner.

President Biden declared today that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is the law of the land to become the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, but doesn’t order the national archivist to formally approve its addition.

See Also:

NPR: Biden says the Equal Rights Amendment is law. What happens next is unclear

Joe Biden:

(Original Caption) 10/6/1978- Washington, DC- Women whoop it up outside the U.S. Capitol 10/6 after the Senate gave new life to the Equal Rights Amendment, voting to extend the ratification period by more than three years.

Online Exhibition Explores the Stories of More Than 30 Women and How They Changed the Course of Women’s Financial Independence

The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum announced the expansion of “We Do Declare: Women’s Voices on Independence,” a multi-year oral history project that began in 2024 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The complete set of oral histories will debut online March 1 as part of the museum’s Women’s History Month programming and in celebration of America’s 250th. 

The project documents the history of women’s financial independence in the United States through firsthand accounts from women across generations and professional fields. Drawing on more than three dozen interviews, it examines how women’s access to credit, financial services and economic opportunity have developed over the past several decades and the central role women have played in influencing these changes. 

We Do Declare” is led by Rachel Seidman, historian and curator for the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. The project’s digital resources will include interview excerpts, curator essays and public programs, such as a Wikipedia edit-a-thon highlighting women who helped change laws, contributed new research, created new networks and, ultimately, bolstered economic independence for women. 

Before the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, many women were unable to obtain credit in their own names. The law—which made it illegal for banks to discriminate against women applying for credit cards based on their sex or marital status—fundamentally changed women’s ability to access credit and shifted their relationship to the banking industry. “We Do Declare” places that period in historical context and traces the developments that followed through interviews with women who worked in finance, government, business, labor and community organizations. 

The project will showcase the stories of trailblazers, including Jacki Zehner, founder of SheMoney and the youngest woman and first female trader to be made a Goldman Sachs partner; Karen Nussbaum, former director of the United States Women’s Bureau and co-founder of 9to5, which inspired the 1980 film by the same name; Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (2023); La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of W.K. Kellogg Foundation, among others.

“‘We Do Declare’ honors the women who insisted on economic agency and, in doing so, expanded what independence could look like for all Americans,” said Melanie Adams, interim director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. “This important addition to our nation’s history is a key part of the museum’s mission to highlight the overlooked and untold stories of women from all walks of life who have moved our country forward.”

“Oral histories allow us to capture not just what changed, but how it felt to live through those changes,” Seidman said. “The women featured in ‘We Do Declare’ describe the persistence, creativity and collective action required to claim financial agency—and how those efforts have reshaped laws, institutions and economic opportunities in America. I hope these stories inspire the next generation to continue to learn about the women who have shaped America and worked tirelessly for a better future for all.”

The initiative also reflects the museum’s broader commitment to collaborative, digital-first engagement as it builds toward opening its permanent home on the National Mall. Visit the museum’s website for more information.

About the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum 

Jimmy Carter signs House of Representative Resolution for Equal Rights Amendment.

Collection JC-WHSP: White House Staff Photographers Collection Series: Jimmy Carter's Presidential Photographs File Unit: Jimmy Carter, Roslaynn Carter - ERA Signing