Thursday, July 9, 2020

Are Slave Reparations Unconstitutional ???

There are portions of the US Constitution which appear to prohibit the paying of reparations for slavery:

Amendment 13
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

[Wouldn't the paying of reparations be a form of involuntary servitude for those doing the paying? In what court and for what crime would they have been convicted to authorize such a thing?]

Amendment 14
1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

[Punishing whites for someone else's prior acts of slavery and/or for alleged or actual "privilege" appears to directly violate this clause.]

Amendment 14
4: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

[Doesn't the "claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave" to which this clause refers include claims made by both the former slaveholders AND the slaves themselves (including their descendents)? If the federal government and the several states are immune from payment of such claims, why aren't the people themselves so immune?]

No doubt, as was the case for Social Security and ObamaCare, some will argue that reparations are just another tax and that the government has the power to tax anyone for any amount and for any reason, but should We the People accept that argument this time?

What do YOU think?

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