(CN) - An 11th Circuit panel affirmed Thursday that preventing someone from using a public road because they are Black constitutes a "badge or incident of slavery" under the Thirteenth Amendment.

"This is not a close question," U.S. Circuit Judge Robin Rosenbaum wrote for the opinion.

"We are certain that the Framers understood interference with travel on public roads because of race to be a central badge of slavery," the Obama appointee added. She was joined by U.S. Circuit judges Nancy Abudu, a Biden appointee, and the Trump-appointed Kevin Newsom.

Rosenbaum issued a detailed concurring opinion on Congress' power to enforce the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude in 1865, except as punishment for a crime.

Ratified over a century ago, the amendment was aimed at racial violence that interferes with federally protected activities, making it a federal crime to "by force or threat of force" injure, intimidate or interfere with someone's use of a government facility because of their race.

In Thursday's ruling, the circuit judges upheld Jordan Leahy's conviction for violating this law.

They rejected Leahy's appeal, asking the 11th Circuit to strike down the provision as exceeding Congress' power under the Thirteenth Amendment.

The panel noted the Supreme Court has upheld this authority and recognized that discriminatory violence on public roads and blocking travel can be treated as a badge of slavery.

Rosenbaum added that, contrary to Leahy's claim, the statute's constitutionality does not hinge on whether the defendant intended to interfere with the use of a public road.

Evidence at trial showed that Leahy, a white man, used his car to terrorize a Black family-J.T., his four-year-old daughter, and
his girlfriend.

Leahy repeatedly tried to run their car off Starkey Road, a public county road in Pinellas County, Florida, while shouting racial slurs and making a gun-shooting gesture. He hit the passenger side of J.T.'s car before speeding off. When he stopped at a red light, Leahy jumped out and charged J.T. on foot. After Leahy began swinging, J.T. subdued the drunk and violent man with a brief chokehold and held him down until police arrived.

When the police arrived, Leahy referred to the Black man as a "criminal" and "negro," and told them, "these guys are animals," and "Y'all have to maintain these people, keep them in their areas."

His ex-girlfriend, Gabriella Bolt, later testified that Leahy's words and behavior were typical for him. He often spoke to her about wanting to attack Black people-whom he called racial slurs-he saw in public places like the mall and the bus stop.

The court instructed the jury that, to find Leahy acted "because of " J.T.'s use of a public facility, it needed to find that Leahy would not have acted as he did, "but-for J.T.'s use of that facility."

The judge further explained, "J.T.'s use of a public facility need not be the only cause for Leahy's action" and that they may find that element satisfied even if Leahy had additional reasons for his actions, as long as they found that he would not have acted as he did "in the absence of J.T.'s use of that facility."

Leahy argued this instruction was faulty because it did not explicitly charge the jury with determining that he acted with "intent" to prevent J.T.'s use of Starkey Road specifically.

"The district court committed no error in how it instructed the jury. And the evidence at trial more than sufficiently allowed a reasonable jury to conclude that Leahy willfully attempted to injure, intimidate, and interfere with J.T. and his family because they are Black and used a county road," Rosenbaum wrote.

In November 2022, the Middle District Court of Florida sentenced Leahy to 24 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release.

Source: Courthouse News Service