More on Reparations

 I'm opposed to reparations. It probably violates the equal protection clause. Citizens of the United States are entitled to "equal protection of the laws."

Reparations would punish white, Hispanic and Asian citizens for things they didn't do in order to compensate black people for things they didn't suffer. If you can find an ex-slave feel free to compensate him or her.

It would also probably violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which "prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin."

You would be discriminating against white, Hispanic and Asian citizens by using their taxes to give money to black citizens simply because they may have descended from a slave.

If they had been slaves that might be different. But no black person alive today was a slave.

I'll tell you something else that I would argue it might violate. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3 of the Constitution which prohibits Bills of Attainder. A bill allocating reparations would be punishing white, Hispanic and Asians citizens without a judicial trial and so may be a Bill of Attainder.

Here's the bottom line. We are either a nation of laws or we're not. We can't pick and choose what laws to follow simply because we want to do something and that goes double for the Constitution.

I contend that reparations would require a Constitutional Amendment and a repeal or modification of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.