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In connection with amendment 20, the Chair

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suggested yesterday afternoon the possibility that the

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13th amendment might be effective to prevent imprisonment

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for debt. At my request, one of the research assistants

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attached to the staff of the Convention has looked into

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this since the Convention adjourned last evening, and

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advises me that this may be questionable except in the area

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of debts arising out of personal service contracts.

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The Supreme Court of the United States has held

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that imprisonment for debt arising out of a contract for

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personal services is, in effect, an enforcement of

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involuntary serv itude, and would be a violation of the

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Thirteenth Amendment of the United States. The Supreme

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Court of the United States has apparently not passed at all

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on the question of whether imprisonment for contract debts

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would be a violation of the Thirteenth Amendment, but the

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Supreme Courts of at least a few States upheld statutes

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providing for imprisonment of absconding debtors in

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contract cases, the most recent apparently being a decision

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of the Supreme Court of Vermont in 1950.

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This being the situation, I do not think the