LIFETIME
ALIMONY VIOLATES THE 13th AMENDMENT
By: Robert Sell
“Neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within
the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
Slavery has
existed in many forms for thousands of years and probably as long as
man has been around. In the United States, the word conjures up
thoughts of the bitter struggle that literally tore the country in
half during America’s only civil war. While most would agree
that the civil war was sparked by state’s rights, the focus of that
war was and remains in the history books as whether state’s rights
extends to legal enslavement of one man to another for monetary gain.
Or, that no person can be forced to labor for the monetary gain or
support of another. Since the Bill Of Rights and the U.S. Constitution
explain and guarantee the concept of God given freedom, it could be
said that slavery and involuntary servitude act to nullify both the
Bill Of Rights and much of the Constitution creating a non-citizen
unprotected by their provisions.
This is because a person who is forced to labor for another under
threat of punishment is no longer free to pursue life, liberty, and
happiness in the way they prefer, that suits them, or that they are
guaranteed by our country’s founding documents. When a person is
forced to labor involuntarily for another, their life becomes a tool
and not a life to be lived. They are deprived of the freedom to decide
for themselves if their lifestyle suits their personality and to have
the freedom to make the changes they deem necessary to live in peace.
For these very reasons, lifetime alimony statutes create a condition
of involuntary servitude and directly interfere with individuals’
freedom. Lifetime alimony is rarely if ever a voluntary agreement
between two people. Even as part of a voluntary marital settlement
agreement, the person who agrees to it does so because the broad
interpretation of the law would require it by default.
Once an individual is assigned lifetime alimony, they lose the freedom
to control their own destiny. They become the property of the State
Family Court system and their ex-spouse and must work diligently to
maintain their alimony payments or face having their wages forcibly
garnished by the state, serving jail time for contempt of court, or be
forced into indigence. Even in cases where people have accepted
indigence as an alternative, courts have ruled that that person
retains “the ability” to earn a specific wage amount and so are
assigned alimony based on that perceived earning potential. It is no
different than the taskmaster of the slave coming around and beating
them with a whip to induce increased labor. In effect, they are no
longer free and are in fact slaves of the state for the benefit of
their ex-spouse.
The state family court system is the equivalent of the slave auction
block and the slave bidders are the divorce attorneys who buy and sell
them in a bidding war to control the alimony amount with family court
judges acting as the auctioneers. Just like the slave trading markets
of the old south the state divorce courts, their attorneys, and judges
operate a government within a government, a system within the system,
where humans are bought and sold. The unbelievable part is that it’s
all being sanctioned by state divorce / alimony law.
As with other types of slavery, the slave is only released from their
enslavement by their death or permanent disability. In the case of
lifetime alimony there are cases where not even disability has
released them. In days past, if a slave sought their freedom by
running away, the slave owner could track them down and return them to
their slave labor. It is the same with lifetime alimony. Any person
who seeks to be free from lifetime alimony and flees to another state
to try and escape their alimony payments, soon finds that they have
been tracked down and returned to their enslavement by the system
through wage garnishment.
The recipient is generally free to pursue life, liberty and happiness
as they wish, outside of remarriage or death, without any negative
consequences. There is no requirement on their part to prove their
continued need, their inability to support themselves, or any other
condition outside of remarriage that would release the obligor from
the bondage of alimony law. Alimony recipients are never deemed
capable of a specific earning potential or forced into modifications
based on that concept.
The parallel of divorce and lifetime alimony laws with state
sanctioned slavery goes much deeper than this short synopsis. However
even what is provided here should leave any normal freedom and
equality loving American aghast at the system and wondering why it
exists.
