A group of Democratic lawmakers has reintroduced a joint resolution to negate a clause in the 13th Amendment of the Constitution that permits slavery or involuntary servitude “as a punishment for crime.”
The “Abolition Amendment” was introduced on Wednesday ahead of Juneteenth – the national holiday commemorating the end of slavery – by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Nikema Williams of Georgia. The 13th Amendment presently says, “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.
Those pushing the legislation told CNN that most Americans don’t realize the “loophole” in the 13th Amendment. In a news release, they said that the “slavery clause” led to higher rates of arrests among Black Americans for “minor crimes, like loitering or vagrancy, codified in ‘Black Codes’” throughout the Jim Crow era.
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