On Jan. 17, then-President Joe Biden declared the Equal Rights Amendment is the law of the land.
“It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people,” Biden said. “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.”
The amendment was first proposed in 1923. The ratification process began after the text, written by suffragist Alice Paul, was passed by both houses of Congress in 1972.
The law states, succinctly, that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
It then took decades for the amendment to reach the necessary 38 states for ratification. What happens now, however, is subject to debate. The National Archives said that the “underlying legal and procedural issues” with the amendment had not changed, which include a 1982 deadline that many consider unconstitutional. The city of West Hollywood positioned itself squarely in the center of the debate over the ERA in October, when an art installation entitled “FINAL IMPACT” calling for the publication of the amendment adorned the side of the West Hollywood Library.
“I’m glad to see the president declare that the Equal Rights Amendment is the law of the land but he did not tell the archivist of the United States to publish the ERA still leaving a lot in limbo,” West Hollywood Mayor Councilman John Erickson said. “Given the current Supreme Court makeup and new and existing legal challenges, I’m hopeful that this move by President Biden will be far more than just symbolic. We still have work to do to pass the ERA and West Hollywood will be there to help in whatever way we can.”
Longtime ERA activist Zoe Nicholson heralded the development as pivotal for the fight for the amendment.
“There are two things required in the constitution for an amendment, one, a super majority of the states have to ratify it, and secondly, that it goes into effect two years from that occurrence,” she said.
Nicholson, now 76, was on the frontlines of the Women’s Liberation movement in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1982, she fasted with six other women at the Illinois statehouse in attempt to convince the state to ratify the ERA. Nicholson was also present in Virginia in 2020, when it became the 38th state to ratify the amendment, which is the number necessary for inclusion in the Constitution. Based on that ratification, the ERA could be argued as having gone into effect on July 27, 2022 – exactly two years later.
The debated ratification deadline of June 30, 1982, is ironically, the day Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, 3rd District, was born. The deadline is argued by some to be unconstitutional, an opinion seemingly shared by Biden.
“We recall all of the trailblazing women who, since the early days of women’s suffrage, have fought like hell for what they deserve: equal rights under the law,” Horvath wrote in a statement. “Thank you, President Biden, for your decency and heart, and for doing the right thing for women across our beautiful country. I look forward to the archivist publishing the Equal Rights Amendment, affirming what our President has declared today: it is the law of the land.”
“We should be living as if it’s true simply because it’s the right thing to do, not because it’s written down in a hall, or because Congress voted XYZ,” Nicholson said. “I am grateful to Joe … I think somebody approached him where he lives, which is his heart … And I think somebody, and that person was [Sen. Kirsten] Gillibrand (D-New York), said, ‘Look, we know [that according to a recent] poll was just recently taken that 76% of America believes that equal rights for women is the correct thing to do. You’re not going to make enemies by doing this, Joe, and don’t annihilate the movement.’”
Nicholson added that people don’t understand how change happens in society, noting that while the Emancipation Proclamation was made in 1863, it took many years to be fully realized.
“What people really are confused about change actually happens in within the people, and it goes up the ladder of power, and the laws reflect what the culture has already decided to support. So it happens through the arts, through film, through poetry, through live action, through activism,” she explained.
She noted that Jan. 17 was one of the best days of her life, and it changed her status from an ERA icon and authority on the women’s suffrage movement, to an “icon of persistence.” On Jan. 27, Nicholas will offer her book, “The Hungry Heart,” which documents her fast and fight for women’s rights, free for download on her official website, zoenicholson.com.
Legal battles are expected to debate whether or not the amendment will be included in the Constitution. Still, the move was celebrated by many celebrities, public officials and feminist leaders. Former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady Hillary Clinton referenced her famed 1995 speech from the United National Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China.
“Women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights,” Clinton wrote.