Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf
Page Number: 52

4 

STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT 
AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
THOMAS, J., concurring 

marks omitted). 

A 
In  its  1864  election  platform,  the  Republican  Party
pledged to amend the Constitution to accomplish the “utter
and  complete  extirpation”  of  slavery  from  “the  soil  of  the 
Republic.”  2 A. Schlesinger, History of U. S. Political Par-
ties  1860–1910,  p. 1303  (1973).    After  their  landslide  vic-
tory,  Republicans  quickly  moved  to  make  good  on  that
promise.  Congress proposed what would become the Thir-
teenth  Amendment  to  the  States  in  January  1865,  and  it
was ratified as part of the Constitution later that year.  The 
new Amendment stated that “[n]either slavery nor involun-
tary servitude . . . shall exist” in the United States “except
as  a  punishment  for  crime  whereof  the  party  shall  have
been duly convicted.”  §1.  It thus not only prohibited States 
from themselves enslaving persons, but also obligated them 
to end enslavement by private individuals within their bor-
ders.  Its Framers viewed the text broadly, arguing that it
“allowed  Congress  to  legislate  not  merely  against  slavery 
itself, but against all the badges and relics of a slave sys-
tem.”  A.  Amar,  America’s  Constitution:  A  Biography  362
(2005)  (internal  quotation  marks  omitted).  The  Amend-
ment also authorized “Congress . . . to enforce” its terms “by
appropriate  legislation”—authority  not  granted  in  any 
prior  Amendment.  §2.  Proponents  believed  this  enforce-
ment clause permitted legislative measures designed to ac-
complish the Amendment’s broader goal of equality for the 
freedmen. 

It  quickly  became  clear,  however,  that  further  amend-
ment would be necessary to safeguard that goal.  Soon after 
the  Thirteenth  Amendment’s  adoption,  the  reconstructed 
Southern  States  began  to  enact  “Black  Codes,”  which  cir-
cumscribed the newly won freedoms of blacks.  The Black 
Code of Mississippi, for example, “imposed all sorts of disa-
bilities”  on  blacks,  “including  limiting  their  freedom  of