A man who forced four children to do household chores by beating them did not violate the federal law banning forced labor according to a striking opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit, based in Cincinnati.  The Court held that even though the behavior of Jean Claude Kodjo Toviave was reprehensible and deplorable, it did not violate the federal forced labor law.

Toviave brought the children to the country illegally and forced them to cook, clean, do the laundry, study and occasionally babysit.  All the children were relatives. “Toviave apparently demanded absolute obedience from the children,” the opinion said, “Toviave hit the children with his hands, and with plunger sticks, ice scrapers, and broomsticks, often for minor oversights or violations of seemingly arbitrary rules.”

Teachers suspected abuse, and the four were removed from Toviave’s home. A search of the home turned up false immigration documents, which lead Toviave to plead guilty to mail and visa fraud; however, he decided to go to trial on the forced labor charge and was subsequently convicted.

In its opinion, the appellate Court focused on three points in concluding that Toviave’s conduct was not forced labor. First, the court said, “forcing children to do household chores cannot be forced labor without reading the statute as making most responsible American parents and guardians into federal criminals.” Second, “requiring a child to perform those same chores by means of child abuse does not change the nature of the work.” And third, “if it did, the forced labor statute would federalize the traditionally state-regulated area of child abuse.”

The 6th Circuit relied on the Supreme Court's decision this past June in Bond v. United States.  Bond held that a federal law enacted to implement a chemical-weapons treaty did not cover the acts of a woman who used chemicals in an attempt to injure a romantic rival. The Supreme Court in Bond vacated the conviction, in part on the grounds that the statute was not intended to cover the actions in question and the conduct was properly covered by state law. Similarly, the 6th Circuit here stated that “we should be cautious in inferring congressional intent to criminalize activity traditionally regulated by the states.”  The court reversed Toviave’s conviction for forced labor.

Read the opinion here: http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/14a0170p-06.pdf