Home US Biden announces a huge decision on sex discrimination that can only be confirmed by Melania Trump’s girlfriend

Biden announces a huge decision on sex discrimination that can only be confirmed by Melania Trump’s girlfriend

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President Joe Biden announced Friday that he believed the Equal Rights Amendment was the law of the land. It prevents gender discrimination. This move seemed symbolic, as the U.S. Archivist would have to print the amendment to the Constitution

President Joe Biden announced Friday that the Equal Rights Amendment — which explicitly bans discrimination on the basis of sex — has been ratified.

“It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people,” Biden said in a statement. “Consistent with my oath and duty to the Constitution and to the Country, I affirm what I believe and what three-quarters of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land and guarantees all Americans equal rights and protection under the law, regardless of their gender.’

It was a last-minute move to finally get the 102-year-old ERA into the Constitution, with only three days left in the presidency.

“He is using his power as president to make clear that he believes and agrees with leading constitutional scholars and the American Bar Association, not that this should be the case, but that this is the 28th Amendment to the Constitution,” said one senior government official. said Friday morning.

However, Biden’s announcement appears to be purely symbolic, as the Archivist of the United States would have to give the green light to stamp the ERA onto the Constitution, and she has already said she cannot do so legally.

Although appointed by Biden, American archivist Colleen Shogan is a friend of new first lady Melania Trump.

In January 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA, but the state did so decades after Congress set the 1979 ratification deadline.

In December Shogan and Deputy Archivist William Bosanko released a statement saying that Congress’s deadline remained enforceable.

President Joe Biden announced Friday that he believed the Equal Rights Amendment was the law of the land. It prevents gender discrimination. This move seemed symbolic, as the U.S. Archivist would have to print the amendment to the Constitution

US Archivist Colleen Shogan (right) is a friend of incoming first lady Melania Trmp (second from left). She said in a statement in December that she cannot push the Equal Rights Amendment onto the Constitution with congressional or court action to strike down the deadline.

US Archivist Colleen Shogan (right) is a friend of new first lady Melania Trmp (second from left). She said in a statement in December that she cannot push the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution while Congress or the courts will take action to strike down the deadline.

“Therefore, the Archivist of the United States cannot legally publish the Equal Rights Amendment,” the press release said.

However, a number of constitutional scholars point out that nothing is said about deadlines when describing the ratification process in the U.S. Constitution.

On a call with reporters Friday morning, a senior White House official said the “president is not going to direct the archivist” to take this step.

“The Constitution, as you just noted, makes it perfectly clear that amending the Constitution requires two-thirds of both houses of Congress and three-quarters of the states,” the official continued. “And as the president has said, and as the ABA and leading scientists agree, these hurdles have been overcome.”

In the December statement, Shogan and Bosanko pointed to statements from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 2020 and again in 2022 stating that Congress’s deadline was valid and enforceable, and concluded that extending or eliminating of the deadline would require new action from Congress. the courts.

With Trump in charge and Republicans in the majority of Congress, it is unlikely this will happen under their watch.

In 2020, the Trump administration asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit from three attorneys general who wanted to add the ERA to the Constitution after Virginia ratified the amendment in January.

Attorneys generals in Virginia, Illinois and Nevada sued then-U.S. Archivist David Ferriero to force him to “carry out his legal duty to recognize the full and final adoption of the ERA as the 28th Amendment.”

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