Biden's last-minute constitutional change slammed by legal experts: 'Cynical and irrelevant'

Biden on Friday released a statement saying the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) should be considered ratified and a new addition to the U.S. Constitution. 

"More importantly, the president has no constitutional role in the amendment process, so his view carries no weight."

When asked about the timing of the announcement by reporters, Biden said Friday, "Because I had to get all of the facts and I contacted every constitutional scholar in the world to make sure it was the right decision."

"The only way to get it into the Constitution would be to start all over again," McCarthy said. "Everybody knows this, including Biden. That is why the national archivist has not published it, nor has Biden had the temerity to try to order that that be done."

Turley also said: "Biden notably stopped short of giving the left what it wanted most: an actual executive order on the ratification. He simply made a declaration and presumably left the matter up to the archivist."

"The OLC concluded that extending or removing the deadline requires new action by Congress or the courts. Court decisions at both the District and Circuit levels have affirmed that the ratification deadlines established by Congress for the ERA are valid," the National Archives said in a statement in December. "Therefore, the Archivist of the United States cannot legally publish the Equal Rights Amendment. As the leaders of the National Archives, we will abide by these legal precedents and support the constitutional framework in which we operate."

"This is just pandering," McCarthy said. "It will have no lasting significance."