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

President Biden says he believes the amendment has met the requirements to be enshrined in the Constitution. Its history has been long and complex.

If Biden really wanted to make the ERA the “law of the land,” he would have needed to direct the head of the National Archives to ignore the Department of Justice. But he didn't do that—or really anything for women's rights during his presidency.