Biden says Equal Rights Amendment should be ratified, though unclear it matters

• The Biden administration did not immediately respond to Axios' request.
• Last month, the U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan said that the ERA could not be certified because of "established legal, judicial and procedural decisions" and called on new action from Congress.
• "The underlying legal and procedural issues have not changed," a spokesperson for the National Archives said in a statement to Axios.

What he's saying: "I have supported the Equal Rights Amendment for more than 50 years, and I have long been clear that no one should be discriminated against based on their sex," Biden said in a Friday statement.

• "We, as a nation, must affirm and protect women's full equality once and for all."
• The American Bar Association said the amendment has passed all hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution, Biden said on Friday.

Context: Reproductive rights organizations and advocates have backed the ERA to establish sexual health protections as GOP states limit abortion access, and especially after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

• In 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the measure. Proposed amendments become part of the Constitution after being ratified by at least 38 states.,

Between the lines: Just before Virginia ratified the amendment, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel during President-elect Trump's first term issued a memo claiming it considered the ERA expired since a 1982 ratification deadline was missed.

• The same office affirmed that decision in 2022 in another opinion.

Congress first passed the amendment in 1972 with a 7-year ratification deadline in its preamble (The deadline was extended by three years). By 1982, only 35 states had ratified the ERA.

Go deeper: Biden jabs at Trump in farewell address, but pledges peaceful transition