Miller on Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.

Darrell A. H. Miller (University of Cincinnati College of Law) has posted White Cartels, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the History of Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. (Fordham Law Review Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

To commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Jones, this piece does three things. First, it explains how Congress' exercise of Thirteenth Amendment power to govern private economic relationships during Reconstruction gave important, but unacknowledged, intellectual credence to the antitrust movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Second, it explores the human story behind Jones, tracking the narrative of the Joneses, their counsel, the judges, and their lives after the decision. Finally, it explains how Jones' recognition of the interrelationship between public and private coercion can help scholars, lawmakers, and jurists define the contours of Thirteenth Amendment power.