Title
The Thirteenth Amendment Enforcement Authority
Abstract
In the paper, I argue that the Thirteenth Amendment's enforcement clause grants Congress the power to enact statutes to protect liberty. I trace the American concept of liberty, using archival research, through the writings of the revolutionary framers and abolitionists. I believe that the Thirty-Eighth Congress, 1864-1865, intended the Thirteenth Amendment to provide the power to enforce the Declaration of Independence's and Preamble's guarantees of equal liberty. The paper also places the enforcement clause of the Thirteenth Amendment into the contemporary setting of recent decisions on the Fourteenth Amendment and the Commerce Clause.
Disciplines
Civil Rights and Discrimination | Constitutional Law | Legal History
Date of this Version
February 2005
Recommended Citation
Alexander Tsesis, "The Thirteenth Amendment Enforcement Authority" (February 2005). University of Pittsburgh School of Law Working Paper Series. Working Paper 9.
https://law.bepress.com/pittlwps/art9
Comments
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