The last week of Joe Biden’s sorry term in office is turning out to be even worse, and even more bizarre, than what preceded. Today Biden decreed, apparently by tweeting about it, that the Equal Rights Amendment has now passed:
Today I'm affirming what I have long believed 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. pic.twitter.com/oZtS6Q89zG
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 17, 2025
This is moronic. As the Community Note indicates, the 28th Amendment did not pass and is now a dead letter, since by its terms it has expired. Biden also omits to mention that a number of states that once ratified the ERA subsequently rescinded that ratification.
It is hard to know what to make of this. Does “Joe Biden” or whoever tweets in his name believe that a tweet somehow makes it real? Noah Rothman comments:
When you think about it, it’s nice to live in a system where the commander of the armed forces declares that the founding legal charter is permanently amended and we all just laugh at him and nothing happens.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 17, 2025
Good ol’ Uncle Joe: corrupt, vicious, dull-witted, senile. We can laugh, but is it really a laughing matter that a sitting president purports to amend the Constitution? Joe Stalin could do that, or maybe Juan Peron. But until now, we never imagined that an American president had any such power.
A reader writes:
Lol trump has to be thrilled about this
He can maybe just tweet away birthright citizenship now?
Actually, birthright citizenship, as that term is now generally used, is not enshrined in the 14th Amendment, and the Supreme Court has never held to the contrary. But you get the idea.
How ironic: the Democrats allege, hysterically, that Donald Trump is a would-be autocrat. But in fact, Trump has already been president for four years, and he was notably cautious in asserting executive authority. It is Joe Biden who thinks he can decree a constitutional amendment into being.
It isn’t, really, a laughing matter. We can only yearn for January 20, when sanity will return to the Executive Branch.
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