WaPo Fact-Checks Biden’s Declaration of a 28th Amendment: ‘There Are Still Only 27’

AP Photo/Ben Curtis

The Washington Post fact-checked President Joe Biden on Friday evening after he declared a 28th amendment to the Constitution had been “ratified” and he would recognize it.

Biden issued a statement on the Century-old Equal Rights Amendment, which is not part of the Constitution and would prevent gender discrimination:

On January 27, 2020, the Commonwealth of Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. 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.

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.

Aaron Blake of the Post evaluated Biden’s claim and declared the Equal Rights Amendment had not been ratified.

“Sometimes crazy things happen at the end of a presidency,” Blake wrote. “But rarely do we see something like this: An outgoing president suddenly declaring there is another amendment to the Constitution.”

Blake added Biden was correct that 38 states needed to ratify the amendment – as Virginia did – but concluded there were two issues:

One is the deadline issue. Congress initially passed the amendment with a seven-year deadline for states to ratify it. Congress later extended that deadline by three years, to 1982, but the ERA still came up three states shy. The three additional states came much later.

The second is that, in the 1970s, five states voted to rescind their previous votes to ratify the amendment. In other words, only 35 states ratified it by the deadline, and only 33 states currently want it ratified — at least if you look at their most recent word on the matter.

Blake concluded, “But a 28th Amendment has not suddenly been appended to the Constitution per Biden’s decree — there are still only 27 — nor does there appear to be much hope that it will soon.”