Pennsylvania Enemies
The Department of Public Welfare Office of Income Maintenance operates the Child Support Program. This website provide information and the telephone numbers of the Domestic Relations Offices which provide the enforcement services on the county level. The FAQ page mentions imprisonment for up to six months for failure to pay. If that is not peonage, there is no such thing as peonage.
The frustrating thing about this is that this the state that once tried to require that those trying to catch runaway slaves had to prove in a state court hearing that the black person in question was in fact the slave sought. Mr. Prigg did not want to have to do that so he went to the United States Supreme Court and got Justice Story's infamous Prigg v. Pennsylvania decision. There was a time when Pennsylvania stood against slavery, now it practices it against its divorced parents.
Article I Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution declares inherent and indefeasible rights of all men, including the right to acquire, possess, and protect property.
Article I Section 13 of the Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits excessive fines and bails and cruel and unusual punishments.
Article I Section 16 of the Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits continued imprisonment of an insolvent debtor after delivering up his estate for the benefit of his creditor, except in cases where there is a strong presumption of fraud. I guess child support is a fraud.
Article I Section 21 of the Pennsylvania Constitution declares the rights of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and of the state shall not be questioned.
Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] with any information that you have to share.
If the back button does not take you there, click Home to go to the Index page of this Antipeonage Act Website, click Enemies for the main Enemies page, click Letters for the Letters page, and click Allies for the Allies page. Or you can use the Antipeonage Act Site Map.