Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted Wednesday of prostitution-related offenses below the federal Mann Act, an anti-sex trafficking legislation with a controversial, century-old historical past.
Although he was acquitted of extra critical costs, Combs was nonetheless convicted of flying individuals across the nation, together with his girlfriends and male intercourse employees, to interact in sexual encounters in felony violation of the federal legislation.
Over time, the legislation has been utilized to distinguished convictions, together with R&B celebrity R. Kelly, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, musician Chuck Berry and greater than a century in the past, boxer Jack Johnson. Its broad wording and a subsequent Supreme Court docket interpretation allowed prosecutors to convey circumstances towards interracial {couples}, and finally many others in consensual relationships, based on Cornell Legislation College’s Authorized Data Institute.
This is what to know concerning the legislation.
Why is it known as the Mann Act?
In 1910, Congress handed the invoice, which was named after Republican U.S. Rep. James Robert Mann of Illinois.
It’s also referred to as the “White-Slave Traffic Act” of 1910.
What is the historical past behind it?
The 1910 legislation initially prohibited the interstate or overseas commerce transport of “any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” It adopted a 1907 congressionally appointed fee to look into the difficulty of immigrant intercourse employees, with the view {that a} lady would solely enter prostitution until drugged or held captive, based on Cornell’s Authorized Data Institute.
The legislation was used to safe a conviction towards Jack Johnson, who turned the primary Black boxer to turn out to be a world heavyweight champion in 1910. Johnson was convicted in 1913 by an all-white jury for touring together with his white girlfriend, who labored as a intercourse employee, in violation of the Mann Act.
(President Donald Trump posthumously pardoned Johnson in 2018, saying Johnson had served 10 months in jail “for what many view as a racially-motivated injustice.”)
How has the legislation modified since 1910?
In a 1917 Supreme Court docket case, the justices dominated that “illicit fornication,” even when consensual, amounted to an immoral objective,” based on Cornell’s Authorized Data Institute.
A 1986 replace made the legislation gender-neutral and successfully ended the Act’s function in attempting to legislate morality by altering “debauchery” and “immoral purpose” to “any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense.”
How does it apply to Combs’ case?
In February, Combs’ authorized crew made a movement to dismiss a Mann Act cost, writing that the legislation “has a long and troubling history as a statute with racist origins, used to target Black men and supposedly protect white women from them.”
The movement says Combs is being singled out as a result of he’s a strong Black man, saying “he is being prosecuted for conduct that regularly goes unpunished.”
He was acquitted of intercourse trafficking and racketeering costs that would have put him behind bars for all times.
