Two Things Biden Could (And Should) Do Before Leaving Office

On January 20th, President Biden's term in office will end. But there is still time to do some good things for the country. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rick Steves give us a couple of those things. They write: 

Make the Equal Rights Amendment part of the Constitution
By Kirsten Gillibrand

With Republicans set to take unified control of government, Americans are facing the further degradation of reproductive freedom.

Fortunately, Mr. Biden has the power to enshrine reproductive rights in the Constitution right now. He can direct the national archivist to certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment. This would mean that the amendment has been officially ratified and that the archivist has declared it part of the Constitution.

The amendment is concise: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

The amendment would make discrimination on the basis of sex — like restrictions on reproductive care that single out women — unconstitutional, including, in my view, abortion. We’ve seen the potential of this approach; courts in several states with E.R.A.s have cited those amendments in striking down state prohibitions on Medicaid-funded abortion care.

The E.R.A. has met the requirements for certification — it passed two-thirds of Congress in 1972 and was ratified by three-quarters of the states as of 2020. Only a flawed Trump Justice Department memo prevented its certification as a constitutional amendment. The memo contended that the E.R.A. is no longer valid because it failed to meet the seven-year deadline that Congress initially set and then, when the ratification effort fell three states short, extended until 1982.

But the deadline was meaningless. The Constitution says nothing about a deadline for amending it.

No doubt this would be argued in the courts; right-wing legal challenges would follow the archivist’s certification and publication. But there is strong legal backing for our position. Mr. Biden should act now to protect reproductive rights and make the E.R.A. the law of the land.

Pardon people convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses
By Rick Steves

Mr. Biden has taken historic steps to address America’s outdated and failed federal marijuana policies. In October 2022 he pardonedthousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law, and last week, he granted clemency to around 1,500 people, including some nonviolent drug offenders. His administration has proposed a rule change that would reclassify marijuana — which currently shares the same classification as heroin — as a drug with a lower potential for abuse. But he can still do more.

Gallup polls have consistently shown that a significant majority of Americans support marijuana legalization. And on the campaign trail, Mr. Biden said that “no one should be in jail because of marijuana.” But his October 2022 pardons applied only to people convicted of marijuana possession, not those convicted of selling or distributing marijuana. In the final weeks of his term, he should pardon all Americans who have federal convictions for nonviolent marijuana-related crimes, and he should commute the sentences of every single person who is sitting in federal prison today for those offenses. It’s the right thing to do.