Jack Johnson, Chuck Berry and Eliot Spitzer?
11 03 2008From The Nation (via Yahoo News):
His chances of staying in office, however, would vanish if prosecutors charged him under the 1910 Mann Act–known at the time as the White-Slave Taffic Act. Passed at the end of the Progressive era during the height of a moral panic over alleged “white slavery”–the Mann Act banned the interstate transport of women for “immoral purposes.” It’s survived numerous court challenges and modifications by Congress over the years, but it’s still on the books. Spitzer arranged for the prostitute’s Amtrak ticket from New York to Washington (and her hotel room), so he could be subject to federal felony charges under the present day incarnation of the Mann Act. Indeed, the four defendants charged last week in the sting that swept up Spitzer were charged under the act.
The Mann Act? This Mann Act?:
One of the landmarks of Progressive Era legislation was the White Slave Traffic Act — better known as the Mann Act for its author, Illinois congressman James Robert Mann. The Mann Act made it a crime to transport women across state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” While designed to combat forced prostitution, the law was so broadly worded that courts held it to criminalize many forms of consensual sexual activity, and it was soon being used as a tool for political persecution of Jack Johnson and others, as well as a tool for blackmail.
I thought they stopped using that when they prosecuted Chuck Berry!
I’m still depressed about this, but if Eliot Spitzer forces America to have a public conversation about government-enforced morality maybe some good will come from his troubles.
Update: Here’s the full text of the original Mann Act. Its proper name is the White-Slave Traffic Act. Doesn’t that make you feel better?
The Mann act is in place to prevent the type of forced prostitution that we see returning in America, in the illegal immigrant communities. Spitzer is a world class hypocrit as well as a felon. He should resign soon. Good riddance.
Murder laws are “government forced morality” too.
Given the careless and public way in which Spitzer conducted his numerous affairs, some further questions arise:
1. Can we be sure that Spitzer has not been blackmailed for many months?
2. If Spitzer was blackmailed, how many millions in public funds, public jobs and other favors did he provide to the blackmailers at public expense?
3. Spitzer likes to live dangerously - what else has he been up to?
Obviously, it will be many months before we get to the bottom of the Spitzer scandal. Right now, he needs to resign, and preferably go to another country for a few years.
Perhaps Spitzer could work for the Peace Corps in Sudan for five years.
[...] Mann Act. 12 03 2008 The other day I was wondering why the Mann Act hadn’t been repealed years ago. NPR has answered my question: Over the [...]
Ben Florsheim has hit the nail on the head. Obviously, the prostitution rings which Eliot Spitzer did business with held serious dirt on Spitzer. Spitzer violated the law, and his oath, when he protected those criminal organizations by failing to prosecute them, and he prosecuted their competitor prostitution rings. But we all know that organized crime is never solely in one line of business. Remember how the law firm in John Grisham’s “The Firm” was able to control other people? They would have a prostitute seduce a married man, who then could do their bidding or end his marriage. People, such dirty tricks have long used by people to manipulate others for nearly as long as the business of prostitution has existed. How do you think the Eliot Spitzer’s father was able to magically get certain New York City officials to approve his bold plans to build the largest (at the time) buildings? Such “magic” approvals made Daddy Spitzer’s raw real estate holding increase dramatically in value. Remember the story about how Daddy Spitzer used extortion to force Eliot to sell him property while playing a Monopoly game? Organized Crime is much more sophisticated than just The Sopranos and The Godfather. Most of all I hope noone gets crushed if their racist stereotype of organized crime consisting of Sicilians evaporates before their eyes. What is the most valuable commodities for organized crime: Corrupt Judges, Prosecutors, and Cops. Eliot Spitzer protected organized crime each time he chose
not to investigate or prosecute criminal referrals to his office such as the crimes related to Worldcom . Only a Federal Special Prosecutor has the power to expose the deep web of the organized crime families which had connections to Eliot Spitzer