President Joe Biden announced on Friday that he considers the Equal Rights Amendment to have been ratified. His statement “affirm[ed] what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land,

Legal scholars say President Joe Biden might be right about the Equal Rights Amendment — but his declaration on Friday has no legal significance. In a surprise move on his way out of office, Biden proclaimed that the amendment has met the requirements for ratification and is now part of the Constitution.

President Joe Biden says the Equal Rights Amendment should be considered a ratified addition to the Constitution. The national archivist disagrees.

The struggle over the Equal Rights Amendment started more than a century ago when suffragist Alice Paul first proposed it shortly after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the