Last Friday, former President Biden declared the Equal Rights Amendment "the law of the land" - so why has it failed to become the nation's 28th constitutional amendment.

The Equal Rights Amendment, which would prohibit discrimination based on gender, was sent to the states for ratification in 1972. Congress set a deadline of 1979 for three-quarters of state legislatures to ratify the amendment, then extended it to 1982.

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.