President Joe Biden appears to have just made a last-minute change to the U.S. Constitution. 

Fox News reports that he did so by claiming that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) should be considered ratified and a new addition to the U.S. Constitution.

Unfortunately for Biden and the Democrats, however, things are not so easy. A president, for example, cannot unilaterally add an amendment to the Constitution.

This, nonetheless, has not stopped Biden from trying.

Here is what he did:

On Friday, the White House released a statement on the so-called "Equal Rights Amendment."

It is "so-called" because no such amendment exists.

The statement, in part, reads:

On January 27, 2020, the Commonwealth of Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized that the Equal Rights Amendment has cleared all necessary hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment. I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution.

Biden thus went on the declare the "28th Amendment" the "law of the land."

He concluded:

It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people. In keeping with my oath and duty to Constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex.

Not so fast, Joe!

This White House statement prompted a rebuke from the Archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen Shogan.

Shogan and her deputy wrote:

As Archivist and Deputy Archivist of the United States, it is our responsibility to uphold the integrity of the constitutional amendment process and ensure that changes to the Constitution are carried out in accordance with the law. At this time, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) cannot be certified as part of the Constitution due to established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions.

Legal experts were also quick to criticize the White House.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy, for example, wrote:

Biden’s announcement is both cynical and irrelevant. If he believed what he is saying, he would’ve said it when his administration started, not when he is on his way out the door as a failed, one-term president.

"More importantly, the president has no constitutional role in the amendment process, so his view carries no weight," McCarthy concluded.