# 13th amendment doesn't apply to the government?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/13th-amendment-doesnt-apply-to-the-government/46807>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [December 22, 2000, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/13th-amendment-doesnt-apply-to-the-government/46807 "2000-12-22T02:54:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2000, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/13th-amendment-doesnt-apply-to-the-government/46807/81 "2000-12-31T10:19:44Z")

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“The phrase “involuntary servitude” was an attempt to prevent nominally free citizens from being trapped by a plutocrat with a sharp lawyer.”  
But not a government open to “interpretation”?  
In other words, what is the fundamental difference, in practice, between these illegal practices and the legal draft?

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**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/13th-amendment-doesnt-apply-to-the-government/46807/82 "2001-01-01T22:13:59Z")

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The others mainly affect relationships between one private entity and another private entity, in the context of the civilian labor market in a peacetime economy.

The draft affects relationships between the individual and the society, in the context of a national emergency.

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**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2001, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/13th-amendment-doesnt-apply-to-the-government/46807/83 "2001-01-02T14:37:52Z")

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Then, mbh, as I read it, it seems to me that the government–a declared public institution–cannot have slaves. Only private entities (inc corporations, I assume) may have slaves.  
Still seems to me to be exactly what the title of this thread is: the amendement doesn’t apply to the government. They are, to put it bluntly, above the law in this case.

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