Thirteenth Amendment

The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime, and grants Congress power to legislate against slavery’s badges and incidents—a power invoked to justify contemporary remedies for continuing forms of de facto slavery and its vestiges.

Claims that use this term

• The 1906 court narrowed the Thirteenth Amendment to literal slavery only
• Harlan held that the Thirteenth Amendment destroys all incident or badge of slavery
• Reparations face a Fourteenth Amendment bar but can rest on Thirteenth Amendment power
• De facto slavery persisted past emancipation, legitimating Thirteenth Amendment remedy today
• Congress may legislate against slavery’s badges and incidents under the Thirteenth Amendment