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The Contract Slavery Universe begins with a neo-conservative takeover of the Supreme Court in 2006: they replaced three of the liberal justices with foaming-at-the-mouth neo-conservative ideologs. As usual, not all of the new justices developed the way their sponsors thought they would.
The first major effect was in 2012 when they declared that the laws against slavery were unconstitutional. The decision is known as State of Georgia vs Mr. Smith. It was 7 - 2, with 7 separate concurring opinions and two dissenting opinions. The opinions didn't agree on much other than the case number. However, there were three essential points. First, to meet the constitutional test for slavery, the status had to be enforced by the organs of society, that is the police and courts. Second, the contract had to be entered into voluntarily, and had to contain exit provisions. Third, the police and courts cannot interfere with any measures that the owner takes to prevent his property from walking out, as long as they're specified in the contract. The latter two provisions set up a significant amount of tension.
The third point was reaffirmed by the Supreme Courty in 2015, but in 2017 they decided that government regulations regarding health and safe workplaces overrode any provisions in contracts.
The Slaveowner's Consortium was founded in 2013, immediately after the first Supreme Court decision. Their original goal was to resurrect the slavery system of the Old South, but they promptly discovered that interest in that was minimal to non-existent. They evolved very swiftly into a generalized support organization. At the time of this snapshot, they had a newsletter detailing practices and legal issues, and were in the process of establishing a depository for slave contract depositions.
One major effect of the legal changes is in BDSM activities. Since the effect was to declare submissive / slave contracts to be legal and privately enforceable, BDSM societies have suddenly discovered that on the one hand they have some legal cover, and on the other hand compliance with government regulations isn't something that individuals or small organizations can manage. Consequently, they have begun to consolidate to gain leverage, some on a regional level and some on a national level. There still isn't any clarity about the eventual shape, and there won't be for several decades until the Gorean Association becomes the acknowledged leader, with the Natasha Fan Club being a larger but less intense second.
Within the story, the Aramis Adult Baby Day Care Center is an example of what some regional BDSM societies are doing. Again, at this point there is no national clarity: all of these things are bits and pieces.
The social ultra-conservative branch of the neo-conservatives organized the Goodwife Institute. The Goodwife Institute's stated viewpoint was that a woman's place was in the home, as a wife and mother, and if she couldn't do that, her place was as a slavegirl supporting another woman in her role as a wife and mother. They weren't quite that forward in presenting their agenda, but their courses never mentioned the slightest possibility that a woman would have any kind of career outside of the home - other than women's social activities, of course.
Also in 2012, the government instituted an identity system involving multiple biometrics checked against a national data base. This proved, to everyone's surprise, to be unhackable. In 2014 a practical and reasonably accurate brain wave lie detector was implemented. It was certified for court depositions in 2016, thus satisfying the "voluntary at time of signing" part of the State of Georgia tests.
Likewise around 2012, a major breakthrough created a realistic method of real gene surgery: it became possible to change a specific gene in (almost) every cell in the body. The technology turned out to be very cheap to deploy (creating it was the hard and expensive part) and it almost immediately escaped from academia and biomedical research into the hands of enthusiasts. By the time of this snapshot, the original burst of enthusiasm had died down, leaving around a hundred or so organizations with the financial and intellectual resources, and in many cases lack of ethical qualms, to do serious research in modifications. They are scattered worldwide, and there is considerable overlap. There are major research interests in "furries" (that is ponygirls, catgirls, etc), beauty enhancement, sex changes, longevity and a number of other areas. Advances are rapid, and some of the researchers are beginning to create installation programs that take normal human variation into account.