Opinion ID: 430483
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Thirteenth Amendment

Text: 32 The other appellants seek to invalidate under the thirteenth amendment judicial appointments of counsel to represent parties where neither the parties nor the state adequately compensate the appointed attorneys for their services. 12 The system by which the superior court appoints counsel to represent indigent parents, however, is not forced labor. An attorney who wishes to take no further assignments is free to either stop practicing before the Family Division, or even to continue to practice without taking CJA-compensated juvenile cases. Inability to avoid continued service is the essential ingredient of involuntary servitude. See Flood v. Kuhn, 443 F.2d 264 (2d Cir.1971), aff'g 316 F.Supp. 271 (S.D.N.Y.1970), aff'd on other grounds, 407 U.S. 258, 92 S.Ct. 2099, 32 L.Ed.2d 728 (1972); Wicks v. Southern Pacific Co., 231 F.2d 130, 138 (9th Cir.1956), cert. denied, 351 U.S. 946, 76 S.Ct. 845, 100 L.Ed. 1471 (1956). Since the superior court appointment system lacks this ingredient, we agree with the district court that the appellants' complaint fails to raise a genuine thirteenth amendment issue. 33