Howard University law professor Justin Hansford recently declared that the United Nations should set up a tribunal that would force the United States to pay trillions of dollars in reparations to atone for slavery. Writing at Liberty Unyielding, Hans Bader scrutinizes this demand for wealth redistribution. He notes that Hansford, an activist as well as a law professor, wants to involve more than just the U.N. in this effort. Indeed, he wants reparations at all levels of political power. “In an interview, Hansford said a UN reparation tribunal was only one route to push the US federal government, as well as state and city officials, to address racial inequalities dating back to the slavery era.”

As Bader argues, however, reparations would be unworkable and unconstitutional. U.N. involvement wouldn’t change that.