Butler v. Perry

Background

A man in Columbia County, Florida was convicted for refusing to work on public roads under a 1913 county law. The law required every able-bodied male between twenty-one and forty-five who had lived in the county to work six days a year on roads, or provide an able-bodied substitute, or pay three dollars. After conviction and a jail sentence, he sought habeas corpus in the state circuit court, which remanded him and released him on bond. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court’s action, and the case reached the United States Supreme Court on a writ of error.

Reasoning

The central question was whether this law amounted to involuntary servitude forbidden by the Thirteenth Amendment or whether forcing labor or accepting payment violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee against depriving liberty or property without due process. The Court looked to long historical practice and earlier decisions, explaining that states have long required citizens to help maintain public roads and that such duties were part of civic obligations like jury service or militia duty. The Court concluded the Thirteenth Amendment did not intend to bar these traditional public duties and that the statute did not deprive the man of liberty or property without due process because he received notice, a fair trial, and a sentence within statutory limits. The result favored the State.

Real world impact

The ruling means counties may continue to require nearby able-bodied residents to perform limited road work or pay for substitutes, and may punish refusal by fines or short jail terms. It affirms a historic power of states to impose modest community service for public infrastructure and leaves the law in force as applied in this case.