Congress may constitutionally remediate slavery’s present-day vestiges under the Thirteenth Amendment.

Evidence

I believe reparations can be found to be constitutional under the Thirteenth Amendment for one simple reason: De facto slavery did not end with its passage. Systemic racism against black people in the twenty-first century has its roots in the post-slavery period of the nineteenth century. When enslaved people were freed, they could not escape their blackness and were forced to carry it around wherever they went. Slavery shape-shifted into different forms of control over black Americans, whether it was through economic exploitation, mass incarceration, or racial violence—all of which have continued into the twenty-first century. Reparations are a necessary step in the attainment of true freedom, designed to eliminate badges and incidents of slavery once and for all. Congress has the clear right to remedy these vestiges of slavery under Section 2 of the Thirteenth Amendment. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 586

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘badges and incidents of slavery’ doctrine and Section 2 enforcement power is the doctrinal hook for the legal brief defense; ties directly to the case the reader must be able to argue.