Shortly before he left office, President Biden (well, whatever intern was running his account that day) tried to unilaterally ratify the Constitution by declaring the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) the 'law of the land.'
It's not. The ERA missed the ratification deadline, which passed somewhere around the time this writer was born (and she's 42 now). Virginia tried to ratify the ERA in 2020, decades after that deadline, and that ratification was the basis for several legal claims and a few lawsuits.
Here's a thread about two federal lawsuits rooted in the fiction of the nonexistent 28th Amendment (something this writer predicted would happen, by the way):
TWO FEDERAL LAWSUITS RELY ON FICTIONAL EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT IN CHALLENGES TO SELECTIVE SERVICE LAW
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
A thread 🧵
1) Since the pseudo-ratification of the ERA by the Virginia legislature in 2020, 15 federal judges have been presented with legal claims that the ERA was ratified. pic.twitter.com/kro1MzuoFQ
Thankfully, these judges haven't taken the bait:
2) None of the 15 federal judges have gone along with the ERA fiction. Eleven (11) of the judges had previous Democratic affiliations, 4 Republican. In 2023, a unanimous D.C. Circuit panel (Obama, Biden, Trump) rejected the claim the ERA had been ratified (Illinois v. Ferriero). pic.twitter.com/tTrCQagjlj
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
Good.
3) Now, two unrelated lawsuits are challenging the Selective Service System (SSS) registration requirement, on grounds that it violates the mythical "28th Amendment," the Equal Rights Amendment.
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
Recommended
The ERA doesn't exist. These lawsuits should be dismissed.
4) The Military Selective Service Act (MSSA) requires males to register at age 18, but does not require females to register. The Supreme Court upheld this policy in the face of a 5th Amendment challenge in 1981 (Rostker v. Goldberg).
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
There can be debate about whether or not women should have to register for the Military Selective Service Act (MSSA), but that's outside of the 28th Amendment question.
5) California resident Vikram Valame refused to register because he thought the unequal scheme violated his rights. Representing himself, in 2023 he sued in federal court (Valame v. Biden).
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
A fool has himself for a lawyer, as the saying goes.
6) Valame said that he suffered injuries because of his refusal to register, including loss of a chance for certain federal jobs. He asserted that the SSS law violated the "28th Amendment," the Equal Rights Amendment.
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
An amendment that doesn't exist.
No matter how many times Democrats post on X that it's the 'law of the land.'
7) Valame's lawsuit prompted a long and remarkably robust reply brief from the Biden Administration's Department of Justice (Civil Division), filed November 8, 2023. https://t.co/Dd3XmSFacV
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
Even Biden's DOJ -- at least in 2023 -- didn't recognize the ERA.
8) The DOJ brief told the court that Valame "seeks to invoke the power of a '28th Amendment' that no court or branch of government has ever recognized." It strongly defended the efficacy of ratification instructions in proposing clauses, and even cited the work of @StephenESachs.
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
So Biden tried to enshrine the ERA before leaving office knowing it was a dead law.
9) On Jan. 20, 2024, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael M. Cousins (presiding by consent of both parties) dismissed the case, holding, "This Court finds no such amendment in the Constitution." Valame has an appeal pending before the 9th Circuit.https://t.co/ckrZzh7vIG
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
Hopefully, the 9th Circuit rejects the appeal, too.
10) Judge Cousins did not reach standing issues. If the 9th Circuit panel (not yet named) finds that Valame has standing, we predict that it will unanimously reject his ERA claim.
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
It has to reject it.
The ERA does not exist as actual law.
11) On 4-3-25, advocacy groups Equal Means Equal (EME) & the Heroica Foundation, and individual Jacqueline Fenore, sued President Trump and acting SSS Director Craig Brown in the federal district court in Massachusetts (EME v. Trump), asserting the SSS policy violates the ERA.
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
This is so tiresome.
12) Remedies sought include: "Issue a declaratory judgment that the categorical exclusion of women from Selective Service registration is unconstitutional under the ERA."https://t.co/KKXAnCEywd
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
As this writer said, there might be a discussion to have about the Selective Service and women.
The ERA is not the way to go about it.
13) Fenore asserts she tried to register for the SSS on its website and was not allowed to do so, and thereby suffered "stigmatic injury." The SSS registration page states, "Note: Current law does not permit females to register." pic.twitter.com/rTAwYKCJmI
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
Nothing is stopping a woman from signing up for the military, though.
14) On the SSS registration page, clicking the "female" option instantly sends a would-be registrant to a dead-end page! (We observe in passing that the MSSA subjects only males to a DUTY to register, but on its face does not prohibit VOLUNTARY registration by females.) pic.twitter.com/3J4V5tdTR9
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
Well, look at that.
15) The EME case is the brainchild of activist attorney Wendy Murphy (@WMurphyLaw), whose groundbreaking 2020 attempt to force the Archivist to certify the ERA (EME v. Ferriero) was dismissed by Judge Denise Casper for lack of standing, unanimously upheld by the 1st Circuit. pic.twitter.com/CTZOMdqY4o
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
This writer said when all the ERA nonsense went down that Lefties would bring suits to try and make the ERA a de facto law. She was right.
She hates being right sometimes.
16) The EME suit is before senior-status Judge William G. Young, a Reagan appointee. If Judge Young finds that one of the plaintiffs has standing (rather doubtful, we think), we predict that he too will join the growing list of federal judges who say 👎 to the ERA hoax. pic.twitter.com/zXDcPq6LsY
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
It's nothing but a hoax.
17) Murphy's complaint mentions no ERA-specific court decision (wonder why?). Instead she cites (p. 9) President Biden, the ABA, Sen. Gillibrand, and Profs Tribe and Sullivan as authorities for the proposition that "the deadline is unconstitutional." pic.twitter.com/wPXdh494eR
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
Which is why Harris, Biden, Gillibrand and the rest are unfit for office. They know the ratification process and ignored it anyway.
'Defenders of democracy', or something.
18) Murphy's complaint oddly opines about the possible future for Valame's case, asserting, "His case will likely be decided by the [SCOTUS], but "is not the proper vehicle by which the Supreme Court should decide such important constitutional questions about women's rights."
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
There's no 28th Amendment and this is precisely what the Supreme Court needs to rule on.
19) In an April 4, 2025 release, Equal Means Equal President Kamala Lopez said, "It would be an obscenity for the Supreme Court to make such important decisions about women’s rights in a men’s rights case." 🙄 pic.twitter.com/mkprd8xKQt
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
Because of course they are.
20) We think it improbable that either case will reach the Supreme Court. Since the claims are based on a clear constitutional fiction, a circuit split or even a dissent by a circuit court judge seems unlikely. We'll be happy if events prove us wrong on this prediction.
— ERA_No_Shortcuts (@ERANoShortcuts) April 9, 2025
We're hoping the courts keep shutting down these suits.
The ERA is not in the Constitution. The process to ratify it has to begin again.
Case closed.
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