Hassled By The Mann Act
June, 2008
THE ARCANE LAW-BACK IN THE NEWS BECAUSE OF ELIOT SPITZER-HAS A LONG HISTORY OF ABUSE, OFTEN WITH RACIST OR PARTISAN MOTIVATIONSpassed in 1910, the Mann Act—formal name, the White Slavery Traffic Act—made it a federal crime to transport a woman across state lines "for the purpose ofprostitution or debauchery, or tor any other immoral purpose." The law capitalized on public fears about a supposed flood of rural white girls being lured into the sex trade in big cities. It was also in es...
