Lawyer Who Crusaded Against President’s Travel Ban Now Defending Corp Accused of Child Slavery

The lawyer who led the crusade against President Trump’s travel ban is now defending a corporation that has been accused of child slavery.

According to The Washington Free Beacon:

Neal Katyal, the progressive lawyer who led the legal fight against the president’s travel ban and urged the public to take an unforgiving stance toward those involved with child separation at the U.S. border, appeared in the Supreme Court on Tuesday to defend two corporations accused of abetting child slavery.

Advertisement

In legal papers filed to the Supreme Court, the plaintiffs say Nestlé USA and Cargill knew their West African suppliers used child slaves but bought cocoa from them anyway. Katyal, arguing on behalf of the food giants, said the case should be tossed because U.S. courts have no authority to hear the dispute.

The six unnamed plaintiffs were once child slaves on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast, having been kidnapped and trafficked from Mali. The plaintiffs say they were held under armed guard in deplorable conditions, beaten, and tortured if they tried to escape.

“From the United States, [Nestlé] had complete control over the farms’ labor practices, knew that the farmers they were assisting were using and continued to use forced child labor, and purposefully relied on the enslavement of children to increase profits by ensuring the flow of cheap cocoa,” the plaintiffs’ filings read.

I was @VAMNit’s +1. Honored to be in the room where it happened today.
Proud of our friend @neal_katyal. https://t.co/uLENqiYZYj

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) April 25, 2018

Katyal was also the lawyer who led the crusade against the Bush administration’s military tribunals for Guantanamo Bay detainees. But apparently, the violation of human rights has a price tag on it for Katyal.