It was inevitable: US Companies sued for slavery reparations.

[Toadman]

Anyone see this in USAtoday? First it was Japanese WWII internment reparations, now this.

[skuz]

Any way to make some bucks...

[Cruez]

You have got to be kidding me...all of the people that were involved in that are now dead...

That was in the past, get over it already....It's just something else to make the population more segregated than it is already.....Its rediculous.

[MDdan]

Well, for the sake of argument, let's say....

Er..can't do it, this is just too dumb.

I think we're gonna have to come up with a less absurd idea if we're going to debate another topic.

[Mike]

Well think abou it...People are going to be suing in the future relating back to September 11th ....

Still parents suing for millions of dollars at Columbine.

[robin801]

i have to edit my thoughts on this topic at the moment. i will post back later after i get my thoughts together.


robin

[capybara]

as the descendant of slaves, i say its time
to fulfill Lincoln's promise:
40 acres and a mule
(or the cash equiv., plus interest)
Historical note: after Lincoln's death,
congress passed the reparations law, but
Pres. Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill.

[caddmannq]

It seems pretty simple to me.

Slavery was legal while these people were slaves.

When the south seceeded, the north declared slavery illegal in the south (or vice versa.) But under confederate law it was still legal there. So there was no widespread illegal slavery, except perhaps in the south, durring the civil war itself.

You can't sue on the basis of immorality, something that is legal.

And challenging the laws of the past is prohibited by the concept of ex post facto. It's after the fact.

On the other hand, it's often easy to get juries to award huge settlements against huge companies with scanty evidence, based on emotion and sympathy.

Everyone's going to be touting the legal issues, but if there are awards ,they won't be given bcause any law was broken.

[ironforge]

Yeah.. anything for a buck

I can imagine if one WERE of jewish decscent who was forced to work in a labor camp while they were a teenager.. sure.. perhaps they can be awarded money..

but a century or more after the fact?

African american great grandparents were not even slaves..
what's next.. certain ethnic groups suing the state of egypt for forcing their ancestors to build the pyramids?

And isn't Affirmative Action some sort of reperation? That was to give them a "boost" since they got a "bad start".

[vass0922]

when I click the link I get some stuff about the olympics...