AHC/WI: Corwin Amendment Ratified

Delta Force

Banned
The Corwin Amendment was proposed during the secession crisis leading up to the American Civil War. In contrast to the eventually adopted 13th Amendment, this 13th Amendment would have established an entrenched clause (one that can't be amended) preventing the federal government from abolishing or interfering with "domestic institutions" of the states. I'm not sure what other domestic institutions would have been covered, but slavery was specifically mentioned as one.

Assuming that the amendment is ratified after it was historically proposed, how does it impact the future of slavery and relations between the state and federal government? In contrast to the first secession crisis in 1832 (better known as the Nullification Crisis) this would have established a precedent that states can threaten the government into doing certain things and left secession as an option for a potential third secession crisis at a later date.
 
How is that?

Because the Corwin Amendment is about shielding "state domestic institutions" from abolition. Now, while we all know that this amendment was conceived to protect one particular state domestic institution - slavery, slavery isn't specifically mentioned in the amendment. Therefore, the amendment could, if ratified now, even with slavery being abolished, be used to shield other state domestic institutions. 606jae is suggesting that marriage is one such domestic state institution.

The Corwin Amendment could easily be applied to state prison systems, education systems and mental health systems. I imagine that it could, in theory, also be construed so as to apply to various other state chartered government-sponsored ("public") enterprises as well.
 

Delta Force

Banned
Because the Corwin Amendment is about shielding "state domestic institutions" from abolition. Now, while we all know that this amendment was conceived to protect one particular state domestic institution - slavery, slavery isn't specifically mentioned in the amendment. Therefore, the amendment could, if ratified now, even with slavery being abolished, be used to shield other state domestic institutions. 606jae is suggesting that marriage is one such domestic state institution.

The Corwin Amendment could easily be applied to state prison systems, education systems and mental health systems. I imagine that it could, in theory, also be construed so as to apply to various other state chartered government-sponsored ("public") enterprises as well.

Hadn't thought about that, but it seems that it would also cover those other state institutions as well. I wasn't quite awake when I wrote it, so the institution of marriage, correction institutions, mental institutions, etc. didn't come to mind when writing this. Combined with the 10th Amendment, it would severely curtail the power of the federal government, although the full implications of that wouldn't really be obvious in the 1860s. Until the 1930s or so the Supreme Court tried to distinguish more carefully between interstate and intrastate commerce before the commerce clause started being used to do just about everything, but that won't really be an option with the Corwin Amendment.

So this actually has knock-on effects for federalism going forward that I hadn't considered, and that will be the subject of court cases years after slavery has been abolished by the last few holdouts. Being an entrenched clause makes things even more dystopian, because it might be that the only way to get rid of it is to do another constitutional convention.
 
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