Biden’s last-minute constitutional change criticized by legal experts: ‘Cynical and irrelevant’

Legal experts criticized President Biden’s announcement declaring the 28th Amendment law “cynical and irrelevant.”

Biden issued a statement on Friday saying that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) should be considered ratified and a new addition to the US Constitution.

“It is long overdue to recognize the will of the American people. In accordance with my oath and my duty in the Constitution and country, I stand for 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 sex.” he said

BIDEN’S OFFICIAL X-ACCOUNT BLEW UP WITH REFERENCE TO CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT THAT DOESN’T EXIST

“Biden’s ad is both cynical and irrelevant,” said the former assistant US attorney and Fox News contributor. Andrew McCarthy. “If what he says is to be believed, he would have said it when his administration began, not when he is walking out the door as a failed, one-term president.

“More importantly, the president has no constitutional role in the amendment process, so his view carries no weight.”

“President Biden seems determined to move his administration from the odious to the absurd.” Jonathan TurleyFox News contributor and Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, told Fox News Digital. “This was a shameful moment to pander to the most extreme elements of his party. It is a position based on a long-rejected and frankly ridiculous foundation.”

Asked by reporters about the timing of the announcement, Biden said Friday, “Because I had to know all the facts and I contacted every constitutional scholar in the world to make sure it was the right decision.” .

The ERA would prohibit discrimination based on gender. It was sent to the states for ratification in 1972, with Congress setting a 1979 deadline for three-fourths of state legislatures to ratify the amendment. Later, the term was extended until 1982.

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Virginia became the last state to pass the amendment in 2020, bringing the final number of states that had passed the amendment to a total of 38. McCarthy noted that the ERA “was not ratified by the states within the statutory deadline.”

“The only way to get it into the Constitution would be to start over,” McCarthy said. “Everybody knows it, including Biden. That’s why the national archivist hasn’t released it, nor has Biden had the temerity to try to order it.”

Turley also said, “Biden stopped short of giving the left what it wanted most: an actual executive order on ratification. He simply made a statement and presumably left the matter on the docket.”

IT WAS: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

The National Archivist is responsible for making constitutional amendments official. The archivist had previously refused to certify the amendment, citing a 2020 opinion the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) which “stated that the ratification deadline established by Congress for the ERA is valid and enforceable.”

“The OLC concluded that extending or removing the deadline requires further action by Congress or the courts. Court decisions at both the District and Circuit levels have held that the ratification deadlines set by Congress for the ERA are valid,” the National Archives said in a statement in December. “Therefore, the United States Archives cannot legally publish under the Equal Rights Amendment. As leaders of the National Archives, we will abide by these legal precedents and support the constitutional framework within which we operate.”

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“That’s just pandering,” McCarthy said. “It will have no lasting significance.”