Liberating the Thirteenth Amendment
30 HARV. C.R.--C.L. L. REV. 1
... In a constitutional arena dominated by the abstract principle of color--blindness, the Thirteenth Amendment provides a powerful tool for combatting racial inequality by requiring an analysis grounded in racial reality. ... Jones provides a contemporary precedent for applying the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition against slavery to current racial injustices as well as other human rights issues. ... The Reconstruction Congress's final piece of legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 ("the 1875 Act"), prohibited race discrimination in the use and enjoyment of public accommodations and in jury selection. ... Because the Bradley majority did not believe that race discrimination affected the exercise of legal rights by free African Americans during slavery, they concluded that mere discriminatory acts were not badges of slavery. ... Consequently, Justice Bradley found that the Thirteenth Amendment did not grant Congress the power to pass anti--discrimination laws such as the 1875 Act and that Congress had improperly determined that race discrimination was a badge or incident of slavery. ... But he stood alone in asserting that the Thirteenth Amendment prohibited race discrimination as a bedrock of slavery. ... The Fourteenth Amendment analysis examines the peremptory striking of an individual juror to determine if it may be sustained; a Thirteenth Amendment approach abolishes the racially discriminatory peremptory challenge and the all--white jury, because they are considered badges of slavery. ...
