22 June 2007

It's Good to know Kentucky is taking a stand

It will now be a felony "to force someone into labor, domestic work or the sex trade."

Funny, I thought there was an amendment to the federal constitution which handled that a long time ago.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The 13th Amendment didn't prescribe a penalty for violations. However, aren't there federal laws that this duplicates? Don't the feds enforce them? Besides the 13th Amendment, modern day slaves within our borders have usually crossed national boundaries as well as state, so there is plenty of reason for federal jurisdiction.

And perhaps that is the reason for the law (assuming there is a reason other than legislative grandstanding): Is the INS so eager to deport illegal alien victims of slave-traders that they won't keep them in the country to testify? Kentucky may be trying to correct that by keeping it in state court and as much as possible keeping the INS's mitts off the victim/witnesses.

(If that's what the INS is doing, it's a remarkably stupid policy. Slave-traders don't kidnap victims from American streets, they arrange to have them smuggled in. Putting them out of business will do far more to reduce the number of illegals than deporting a few people. But since I know of several other ways that the INS has established a new low for government competency...)

Anonymous said...

Aw, DAMN!

Windypundit said...

What I really want to know about is HB 246, a bill "to prohibit flower shops from misrepresenting their physical location."

What's up with that?

Ken Lammers said...

Oh, that's about florists from some place like NYC getting an 800 number and buying an ad in Kentucky yellow pages. You call them and they tell you they are Joe's flowers in Lexington. After you place your order they then call a local florist and have him send you the flowers.