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President Joe Biden wants people to know he's looking at a dead amendment. Shortly before leaving office, Biden declared there was a 28th Amendment to the Constitution, despite the fact that the bill died during the ratification process years ago.
Not since then Movie “The Sixth Sense”“Could there have been a more eerie moment? In the words of Cole Sear in the film, Biden doesn't think the amendment is a failure and is “just walking around as usual.” [amendments]. They don't know they're dead.'' Biden agrees.
President Joe Biden is photographed in front of the U.S. Capitol. (Getty Images)
Biden waited until just before leaving office to pander to the most delusional elements of the Democratic Party and unilaterally announce that the Equal Rights Amendment was now part of the Constitution. This farce was then amplified by figures like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D.N.Y.). joy And they lie to women that they can now go to court and enforce amendments to restore things like abortion rights.
This strange group's fantasy was sparked by the following declaration:
“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, that the 28th Amendment is the law of the land. , guarantees every American citizen equal rights and protection under the law, regardless of their gender. ”
Biden cited dozens of “constitutional experts” to support this absurd claim, although he did not name them.
Journalists work out of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) (Anna Moneymaker)
Biden's last-minute declaration is creepier than the movie, because it requires a departure not only from the constitutional process but also from reality. Despite running as a champion of democracy, Biden has made it clear just weeks ago by the Justice Department, various judges, and his own archivists that the ERA was not ratified. are simply ignored.
The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg The proposed amendment was declared invalid..
Recently, archivist Colleen Shogan explained Neither her office nor the White House has the authority to unilaterally issue amendments or waive ratification deadlines.
“In 2020, and again in 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of General Counsel confirmed that the ratification deadline set by Congress for the ERA is valid and enforceable,” she wrote. “OLC concludes that extending or removing the deadline requires new action by Congress or the courts.”
“As a result, U.S. archives administrators cannot legally publish the Equal Rights Amendment. As leaders of the National Archives, we adhere to these precedents and ensure that the constitutional framework in which we operate I support you.”
The reason is simple. The underlying argument is completely ridiculous.
like i have I wrote it beforehis ERA is as dead as Dillinger's.
The deadline for ratification of the ERA was set on March 22, 1979, giving it seven years to obtain the necessary approvals by three-quarters of the states, or 38 states. That couldn't be done. To make matters worse, four states rescinded their previous ratifications: Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, and Kentucky. Fifth, South Dakota, provided that if the ERA was not adopted by a 1979 deadline, ratification would lapse.
Kentucky also had additional problems. The Democratic lieutenant governor vetoed the resolution. The governor rescinds the ratification while he is out. However, Article 5 speaks of ratification by state legislatures.
Notably, not a single state was added during the extension period. Even assuming that five states were counted despite their votes to rescind ratification, the ERA would still be three states short after the second deadline.
President Jimmy Carter speaks at a town meeting. The American flag is raised in the background.
Democrats then argued that states could not cancel their votes even before ratification was complete. So Democrats and then-President Carter simply extended the deadline to June 30, 1982. However, in 1981, a federal district court ruled: idaho vs freeman Congress cannot extend the deadline for ratification of the ERA. (The Supreme Court later blocked that order, but subsequently declared the issue invalid.)
In 2021, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that it would be “unreasonable” for archivists to ignore deadlines and unilaterally add unratified amendments to the Constitution. On appeal, a D.C. Circuit panel unanimously rejected Illinois and Nevada's arguments that archivists should be ordered to release the ERA, stating that “the proposed provision is an invalid preamble to the bill.'' The state's argument that it is similar is unpersuasive because, if that were the case, the ratification method provisions of every amendment in our nation's history would fail.
None of this matters to democracy advocates who ignored the votes in these states and ignored constitutional deadlines and procedures. Harvard law professors Lawrence Tribe and Kathleen Sullivan published a column declaring:The ERA is now the law!“As if using amplification and exclamation points would somehow make it true. (This is the same Lawrence who called out Trump) charged with attempted murder Former Vice President Mike Pence asserted that the law was clear “beyond any doubt, beyond any reasonable doubt, beyond any doubt.”
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Notably, Biden did not issue an executive order to archivists, as many activists had hoped. The reason is simple. The White House knew it could be challenged in court and any judicial review would quickly collapse. They want Biden to declare, like Caesar, that we have a new amendment and treat it as fact.
With this declaration, Biden gave his “last full dedication” to the party's radical left. It was a pandering and frankly pathetic moment for one of the most unpopular presidents currently out of office.
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His actions on the ERA are a perfect example of why he is considered a “failed” president. Biden has always sacrificed principles for the politics of the moment. This was a participation trophy given to activists, without any substance or basis. That's also the reason Voters saw Biden as a greater threat to democracy than Trump..
It's horrifying to think that Biden actually believes this nonsense and is watching dead fixers walk around the White House. But the truth may be even scarier. He doesn't care at all. He sees dead amendments in hopes of breathing life into his legacy. But now both belong to the rank of corpses.
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