Today in Supreme Court History: December 6, 1865

12/6/1865: The 13th Amendment is ratified.

Comments

[Cal Cetín]

Does this qualify as Supreme Court history?

I wasn't aware of the Supreme Court doing much against slavery, except in the case featured in the Amistad movie.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Dred Scott?????

[Cal Cetín]

Didn't do much against slavery there, did they?

[Enrique]

Also, why don't we change this series to "This Week in SCOTUS history" in order to focus on the one or two big things that might have happened in Supreme Court history during that week?

[Dr. Ed 2]

The second time an amendment was explicitly intended to reverse a court decision...

[Brett Bellmore]

And, not long after, the Court ruled so as to render the amendment largely moot.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Don't you mean the 14th and the Slaughterhouse cases?

The 13th supposedly allows conscription, but that's not as complete a mooting.

[Brett Bellmore]

My mistake, I was thinking the 14th, the Court didn't have the nerve to try to moot the 13th.

[Dr. Ed 2]

My understanding is that the Northern states didn't realize that the 14th would also apply to them, and that it was too late to do anything when they realized that it would.

As written, it would largely repeal the 11th Amendment.

And with the slaughterhouse cases, there was a very real underlying public health issue. The offal being dumped into what was the city's water supply was killing people -- on a percentage basis, it probably was more lethal than the Wuhan Covid is now.

[Brett Bellmore]

I can't see how they could have possibly thought it wouldn't apply to them. Maybe they thought they weren't violating it.

And, while there might have been a legitimate issue there, it in no way justified what the Court did to render the 14th amendment essentially empty of application.

[Dan Schiavetta]

The movie Lincoln did a good job on the groundwork for this Amendment.