- cross-posted to:
- colorado
- cross-posted to:
- colorado
DENVER — It’s been four years in the making, but a judge has finally made a ruling in a class action lawsuit against the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) and Governor Jared Polis, finding they violated the state’s constitution by forcing prisoners to work.
The order came down Friday from Denver District Court Judge Sarah Wallace.
She agreed with the plaintiffs, ruling the state and CDOC are violating the Colorado Constitution.
It goes back to the 13th Amendment which has a clause that states, “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.”
That clause has previously allowed forced labor in prisons, but in 2018, Colorado voters amended the state’s constitution making slavery, or forced labor, illegal with no exceptions.
When Colorado passed Amendment A, it became the first state in modern history to end the 13th Amendment’s exception clause. Rhode Island banned slavery without exception in 1842. At least five other states have made the same ban including Utah, Nebraska, Alabama, Oregon and Vermont.
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HELL YEAH great ruling. Shitty that this even had to go to court in the first place, fucking assholes
Colorado voters passed this law ending involuntary labor as a form of state punishment in 2022. I think it’s disgusting that that it has taken this long. Democracy shouldn’t take that many years.
Let’s all hope the US Supreme Court properly defers to the Colorado Supreme Court on questions of Colorado constitutional law.
Just like they deferred to the Florida Supreme Court back in 2000.
Hahaha, I know weed is legal in Colorado, so I don’t have to ask what you’re smoking….
You know full well the US dos not want to give up their free labor and the Prison Industrial Complex won’t get off that lucrative teat. They’ll claim National Supremacy or some shit like that to force prisoners to work. That’ll be the only part of the constitution they cares about.