Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Thirteenth Amendment (14)
- Slavery (11)
- Involuntary Servitude (8)
- Race (4)
- Coercion (3)
-
- Discrimination (3)
- Employment (3)
- Labor (3)
- Oppressive Labor (3)
- America (2)
- Fourteenth Amendment (2)
- Human Trafficking (2)
- Robertson v. Baldwin (2)
- 39th Congress (1)
- Adult Begging (1)
- Antisubordination (1)
- At-Will Employment (1)
- BPP (1)
- Battery (1)
- Beggars (1)
- Begging (1)
- Black Codes (1)
- Black Panther Party (1)
- Blackstone (1)
- Boycott (1)
- Caste (1)
- Chattel Slavery (1)
- Child Support Enforcement (1)
- Children (1)
- Civil Rights (1)
Articles 1 - 25 of 25
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Incongruous Intersection Of The Black Panther Party And The Ku Klux Klan, Angela A. Allen-Bell
The Incongruous Intersection Of The Black Panther Party And The Ku Klux Klan, Angela A. Allen-Bell
Seattle University Law Review
When, in 2015, a Louisiana prison warden publically likened the Black Panther Party to the Ku Klux Klan, I was stunned. The differences between the two groups seemed so extreme and so obvious I could not imagine ineptness of this magnitude. Not long after this, a Georgia legislator unashamedly express that the Ku Klux Klan was not a racist, terrorist group, but merely a vigilante group trying to keep law and order. After initial dismay, each of these instances evoked thoughts of the far-reaching implications of officials making operational and policy decisions around such a flawed appreciation of history. These …
Confronting Race And Collateral Consequences In Public Housing, Ann Cammett
Confronting Race And Collateral Consequences In Public Housing, Ann Cammett
Seattle University Law Review
Access to affordable housing is one of the most critical issues currently facing low-income families. In many urban areas, rising costs, dwindling economic opportunity, and gentrification have foreclosed access to previously available rental stock and contributed to a crisis in housing. For African Americans lingering economic disparities arising from generations of forced racial segregation and the disproportional impact of mass incarceration have magnified these problems. In this Article I explore legal barriers to publicly subsidized housing, a “collateral consequence” of criminal convictions that increasingly serves as a powerful form of housing discrimination. Evictions, denial of admission, and permanent exclusion of …
Begging For Due Process: Defending The Rights Of Urban Outcasts In An Italian Town, Giacomo Pailli, Alessandro Simoni
Begging For Due Process: Defending The Rights Of Urban Outcasts In An Italian Town, Giacomo Pailli, Alessandro Simoni
Seattle University Law Review
Adult begging in Italy has been decriminalized since a Constitutional Court decision in 1995 and an ensuing law, no. 205, in 1999. Nonetheless, beggars, particularly Roma ones, are still perceived by the public as a nuisance, like an issue that should be dealt with. Sensible to the pressure of its constituency, even Florence—a city with a tradition of openness and inclusion—has taken measures against begging and other similar street-level economic activities. Between 2007 and 2008, the first wave of city action in Florence was directed at windshield cleaners at traffic lights. Even though the policy was challenged, it produced the …
“They Outlawed Solidarity!”, Richard Blum
“They Outlawed Solidarity!”, Richard Blum
Seattle University Law Review
In attacking § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B)’s ban on secondary labor picketing in support of a consumer boycott as a violation of the First Amendment, critics have repeatedly condemned the Supreme Court’s reliance on a supposed distinction between “pure speech” and “speech plus conduct,” such as a picket. The Court’s invocation of an “unlawful objectives” doctrine to defend banning speech contrary to public policy has also been repeatedly criticized. After all, picketing has been recognized as protected expressive activity and it is entirely lawful for consumers to choose to boycott the target of a picket. However, commentators have not sought to argue that …
Introduction: The Thirteenth Amendment Through The Lens Of Class And Labor, Maria L. Ontiveros
Introduction: The Thirteenth Amendment Through The Lens Of Class And Labor, Maria L. Ontiveros
Seattle University Law Review
The articles in this Symposium are arranged in three clusters. One cluster focuses on the definition of slavery and involuntary servitude and the reach of the Thirteenth Amendment in prohibiting oppressive labor relationships. Another cluster analyzes several positive class-based rights that emanate from the Thirteenth Amendment. The final cluster examines contemporary examples of oppressive labor that could violate the Thirteenth Amendment’s proscription against slavery and involuntary servitude.
Of Swords, Shields, And A Gun To The Head: Coercing Individuals, But Not States, Aviam Soifer
Of Swords, Shields, And A Gun To The Head: Coercing Individuals, But Not States, Aviam Soifer
Seattle University Law Review
This Article begins with a brief reprise of what should be a textual “gotcha” about the Enforcement Clauses of the post-Civil War Amendments—if our current Supreme Court Justices actually cared about original texts, originalism, or a combination of the two. Next, the Article focuses on the gnarled issue of “coercion.” It argues that, contrary to a great deal of Anglo-American legal doctrine, coercion is best understood along a spectrum rather than as a binary phenomenon. Coercion is actually much contested and highly contextual across many legal categories. Federal coercion—also described as commandeering or dragooning— has become a particular constitutional focus …
The Thirteenth Amendment, Disparate Impact, And Empathy Deficits, Darrell A.H. Miller
The Thirteenth Amendment, Disparate Impact, And Empathy Deficits, Darrell A.H. Miller
Seattle University Law Review
Modern civil rights policy is, as the late Justice Scalia warned, at “war.” On the one hand, some laws, like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) and the Fair Housing Act, can impose liability for decisions due to their racial impacts rather than their racial motivation. Defendants in such cases can always respond that the challenged decision (a test, a criterion, an allocation) is necessary in some legally cognizable sense; but the courthouse doors open with the prima facie case of disparate impact. On the other hand, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, ever since …
The Thirteenth Amendment At The Intersection Of Class And Gender: Robertson V. Baldwin’S Exclusion Of Infants, Lunatics, Women, And Seamen, James Gray Pope
The Thirteenth Amendment At The Intersection Of Class And Gender: Robertson V. Baldwin’S Exclusion Of Infants, Lunatics, Women, And Seamen, James Gray Pope
Seattle University Law Review
In Robertson v. Baldwin, the Supreme Court held that merchant seamen under contract could be legally compelled to work notwithstanding the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition on slavery and involuntary servitude. According to the Court, seamen were “deficient in that full and intelligent responsibility for their acts which is accredited to ordinary adults,” and therefore could—along with children and wards—be deprived of liberty. Over the past few years, however, several courts have applied statutory bans on “involuntary servitude” and “forced labor” (a “species of involuntary servitude”) to protect women and children in domestic settings. These cases suggest that Robertson’s categorical exclusion is …
The Constitution And Slavery Overseas, George Rutherglen
The Constitution And Slavery Overseas, George Rutherglen
Seattle University Law Review
This Article examines the resources available under American law to address the issues raised by extraterritorial enforcement of one of the most widely recognized human rights—to be free from physical coercion and the loss of liberty. Part I reviews the history of adoption, interpretation, and enforcement of the Thirteenth Amendment. The scope of the Amendment gradually expanded through the joint efforts of Congress and the Supreme Court, resulting in a prohibition that now goes beyond involuntary servitude to all forms of peonage, whether supported by state or private action. Part II then looks to other sources of congressional power—the Commerce …
The Thirteenth Amendment, Human Trafficking, And Hate Crimes, Jennifer Mason Mcaward
The Thirteenth Amendment, Human Trafficking, And Hate Crimes, Jennifer Mason Mcaward
Seattle University Law Review
The two most recent federal statutes passed pursuant to Congress’s Thirteenth Amendment enforcement power are the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) and the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Act of 2009. While the Thirteenth Amendment basis of the TVPA has never been questioned in court, the constitutionality of the Shepard-Byrd Act has been challenged (albeit unsuccessfully) in a series of recent cases. This Essay will consider this disparity and suggest that it tells us something about the parameters of the Thirteenth Amendment enforcement power. In particular, it suggests that congressional power is at its apex when the conduct regulated—like human …
A Positive Right To Free Labor, Rebecca E. Zietlow
A Positive Right To Free Labor, Rebecca E. Zietlow
Seattle University Law Review
This Article seeks to resurrect a lost thread in our civil rights tradition: the idea that workers have a positive right to free labor. A positive right to free labor includes the right to work for a living wage free of undue coercion and free from discrimination based on immutable characteristics. Not merely the negative guarantee against the state’s infringement on individual equality and liberty, a positive right to free labor is immediately enforceable against state and private parties. A positive right to free labor is rooted in the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude …
Is Modern Day Slavery A Private Act Or A Public System Of Oppression?, Maria L. Ontiveros
Is Modern Day Slavery A Private Act Or A Public System Of Oppression?, Maria L. Ontiveros
Seattle University Law Review
The government focuses on trafficking as the definitive form of modern day slavery. In doing so, it portrays modern day slavery as a private act with identifiable wrongdoers and views the Thirteenth Amendment through the lens of forced labor. Workers’ advocates, on the other hand, portray modern day slavery as a systemic form of oppression, supported by governmental policies on immigration and occupational exclusions. These groups focus on the Thirteenth Amendment through the lens of class. A historical analysis suggests that the proper approach views the Thirteenth Amendment through the lens of both class and labor.
The Last Legally Beaten Servant In America: From Compulsion To Coercion In The American Workplace, Lea Vandervelde
The Last Legally Beaten Servant In America: From Compulsion To Coercion In The American Workplace, Lea Vandervelde
Seattle University Law Review
Historically, the law of master-servant allowed corporal punishment. Today it seems strange to contemplate that intentionally inflicted violence was ever an acceptable method of compelling workers to labor in America. Strange as it seems, the practice of striking servants to discipline them was considered a legitimate, implicit part of the relationship between masters and servants. Servants, as well as slaves, could be subjected to cuffings and even severe beatings as means of “correction” and compulsion to labor. Menial servants, apprentices, and domestic servants could be beaten with hands, fists, straps, sticks, and sometimes whips, all in the name of correction …
Class As Caste: The Thirteenth Amendment’S Applicability To Class-Based Subordination, William M. Carter Jr.
Class As Caste: The Thirteenth Amendment’S Applicability To Class-Based Subordination, William M. Carter Jr.
Seattle University Law Review
The Thirteenth Amendment currently enjoys a robust renaissance among legal scholars who contend that it provides a judicial remedy for and congressional authority to proscribe the “badges and incidents of slavery.” As discussed below, this interpretation, although not self- evident from the Amendment’s bare text, is well supported by the Amendment’s history and context, the Framers’ explicit intentions, the legislative debates in Congress leading to the Amendment’s adoption, and the contemporaneous legal understanding of the ways in which the Slave Power that had come to dominate and distort American society. This Article briefly explores whether the Thirteenth Amendment applies to …
A New Peonage?: Pay, Work, Or Go To Jail In Contemporary Child Support Enforcement And Beyond, Noah D. Zatz
A New Peonage?: Pay, Work, Or Go To Jail In Contemporary Child Support Enforcement And Beyond, Noah D. Zatz
Seattle University Law Review
Child support enforcement is one of several contemporary contexts in which the state threatens to incarcerate people if they fail to work. This symposium essay explores whether this practice violates the Thirteenth Amendment’s ban on involuntary servitude. At first glance, such threats fall squarely within the ambit of the early 20th century peonage cases. There, the Supreme Court struck down criminal enforcement of legal obligations to work off a debt. Several modern courts have declined to reach a similar conclusion when child support enforcement puts obligors to a choice between paying, working, and going to jail. To do so, these …
The Paradox Of The Right To Contract: Noncompete Agreements As Thirteenth Amendment Violations, Ayesha Bell Hardaway
The Paradox Of The Right To Contract: Noncompete Agreements As Thirteenth Amendment Violations, Ayesha Bell Hardaway
Seattle University Law Review
Employers in a variety of fields are increasingly imposing noncompete agreements on their workers as a condition of the workers’ at-will employment. These employees are working at or near minimum wage, in positions that require little or no advanced technical skills. Major news sources have highlighted this issue while covering recent employment litigation between Jimmy Johns and a pair of its former employees. In this litigation, two plaintiffs filed suit in federal court seeking injunctive relief and declaratory judgment invalidating the noncompete and confidentiality agreements that they signed with the sandwich maker. Granting defendant’s motion to dismiss, the Illinois District …
Slave Contracts And The Thirteenth Amendment, John C. Williams
Slave Contracts And The Thirteenth Amendment, John C. Williams
Seattle University Law Review
The Thirteenth Amendment—the commandment that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States”— did not truly eradicate incidents of slavery. This is hardly a controversial point. The postwar emergence of the Black Codes—laws meant to confine African Americans’ ability to rent, travel, and live as free humans would expect to—ensured that slavery’s conditions continued unabated. The Amendment itself permits slavery to exist “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” Still, did the Thirteenth Amendment not abolish the most fundamental characteristic of chattel slavery—the ability to trade in and …
In Her Words: Recognizing And Preventing Abusive Litigation Against Domestic Violence Survivors, David Ward
In Her Words: Recognizing And Preventing Abusive Litigation Against Domestic Violence Survivors, David Ward
Seattle Journal for Social Justice
No abstract provided.
Let’S Talk About Sex: A Call For Guardianship Reform In Washington State, Sage Graves
Let’S Talk About Sex: A Call For Guardianship Reform In Washington State, Sage Graves
Seattle Journal for Social Justice
No abstract provided.
Don’T Risk It; Wait Until She’S Sober, Patrick John White
Don’T Risk It; Wait Until She’S Sober, Patrick John White
Seattle Journal for Social Justice
No abstract provided.
Prostitution Policy: Legalization, Decriminalization And The Nordic Model, Ane Mathieson, Easton Branam, Anya Noble
Prostitution Policy: Legalization, Decriminalization And The Nordic Model, Ane Mathieson, Easton Branam, Anya Noble
Seattle Journal for Social Justice
No abstract provided.
His Feminist Facade: The Neoliberal Co-Option Of The Feminist Movement, Anjilee Dodge, Myani Gilbert
His Feminist Facade: The Neoliberal Co-Option Of The Feminist Movement, Anjilee Dodge, Myani Gilbert
Seattle Journal for Social Justice
No abstract provided.
Living Under The Boot: Militarization And Peaceful Protest, Charlotte Guerra
Living Under The Boot: Militarization And Peaceful Protest, Charlotte Guerra
Seattle Journal for Social Justice
No abstract provided.
Let’S Invest In People, Not Prisons: How Washington State Should Address Its Ex-Offender Unemployment Rate, Sara Taboada
Let’S Invest In People, Not Prisons: How Washington State Should Address Its Ex-Offender Unemployment Rate, Sara Taboada
Seattle Journal for Social Justice
No abstract provided.
Persistence And Resistance: Women’S Leadership And Ending Gender-Based Violence In Guatemala, Serena Cosgrove, Kristi Lee
Persistence And Resistance: Women’S Leadership And Ending Gender-Based Violence In Guatemala, Serena Cosgrove, Kristi Lee
Seattle Journal for Social Justice
No abstract provided.