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Download AudioHow Slavery-Era Laws Still Shape U.S. Courts Today
By Darius Spearman (africanelements)
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The Invisible Chains of Legal Precedent
Modern U.S. courts have cited slavery-era cases over 300 times since 1990. These rulings once treated Black people as property yet remain valid law for contracts and property disputes. Judges rarely acknowledge their origins, creating a jurisprudential time warp where 19th-century enslavement logic governs 21st-century conflicts (MSU Today).
One 2017 corporate dispute cited Williamson v. Norton (1854), which denied wages to an enslaved man’s labor. The court used this case about human chattel to justify denying benefits to gig workers. Still, most citations ignore the racial violence embedded in these precedents, letting them operate like legal ghosts (Citing Slavery Project).
Slavery-Era Cases in Modern Courts
The Bluebook’s Role in Perpetuating Erasure
The legal citation manual The Bluebook only began requiring slavery context alerts in 2023. For decades, court filings treated cases like State v. Mann (1829)—which sanctioned enslaving children—as neutral precedents. Now, Rule 10 mandates phrases like “(enslaved plaintiff),” but compliance wobbles as citations code racism into footnotes (UIC Law Library).
Law students spend weeks memorizing Bluebook rules that once erased slavery’s origins. Meanwhile, critics argue that simple parentheses cannot repair centuries of violent jurisprudence. These citations form an archival undertow, pulling courts toward America’s unprocessed past (Harvard Law Review).
How Slave Cases Enter Modern Law
Courts’ Troubling Citation Habits
Analyzing thousands of rulings reveals that 80% lack slavery acknowledgments. Judges cite these cases for routine matters like contract timelines, moral equivalency to human bondage, and breached warranties. One 2022 insurance dispute quoted Scott v. Emerson (1852), which upheld “master’s rights” over enslaved people (Citing Slavery Project).
These citations create legal palimpsests where modern judgments layer over historical violence. A 2020 patent case cited Norris v. Newton (1850), which was originally about selling an enslaved blacksmith. The court never mentioned this erased history, which is now threaded into intellectual property law (MSU Today).
What Is The Bluebook?
The Bluebook: The authoritative guide for legal citations in U.S. courts and law schools. Since 1926 it has dictated how lawyers reference cases statutes and other materials. Recent reforms require noting slavery contexts but many consider these changes cosmetic overhauls.
Why Outdated Precedents Persist
Legal inertia keeps archaic rulings alive through stare decisis—the doctrine of following precedent. This protects systemic stability but also preserves the jurisprudential DNA of slavery. Law schools teach students to treat old cases as neutral principles, not historical products (Harvard Law Review).
Many judges use automated citation tools that surface archaic cases without context. One analysis found 40% of recent slavery-era citations came through AI-driven research databases. These technologies scrape historical texts but lack ethical guardrails (Citing Slavery Project).
Breaking Free From Legal Ghosts
Scholars propose radical solutions like grading courts on citation transparency. Others want sunset clauses for pre-1865 cases, forcing judges to renew them consciously. The Citing Slavery Project’s database now flags tainted precedents helping lawyers argue for their retirement (MSU Today).
Legal education reforms are crucial. Some schools now teach citation ethics alongside Bluebook rules. These steps could exorcise slavery’s jurisprudential remnants, letting courts finally confront the living legacy of codified bondage (Citing Slavery Project).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Darius Spearman is a professor of Black Studies at San Diego City College, where he has been teaching since 2007. He is the author of several books, including Between The Color Lines: A History of African Americans on the California Frontier Through 1890. You can visit Darius online at africanelements.org.
