Presidents have no direct role in approving constitutional amendments. So what could President Biden’s pronouncement recognizing a new one actually do?

The ERA’s deadline expired decades ago, but the president argues that recent approvals by three states put the amendment over the top.

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.