Judges Probe Trafficking Law in Salvation Army Coerced Labor Row

Salvation Army National Corp. and vulnerable people who live in its adult rehabilitation centers faced off at the Seventh Circuit Wednesday over whether the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged that the programs’ work requirements constitute coerced labor.

It “can’t possibly be a fair construction” of federal trafficking law that the Christian nonprofit can’t remind ARC residents that they have to comply with all of the requirements or get kicked out, Daniel W. Wolff, a Crowell & Moring LLP partner who represents Salvation Army, told the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

But “the worry that I have about that ...