It seems that the proposed virgin auction allegedly being moved from Australia to Nevada would violate Federal law despite brothel prostitution being legal in parts of Nevada. And, not just any law. According to Las Vegas Sun, the proposed virgin auction violates the infamous Mann Act.

Some history: Few laws have seemed as arbitrary in their usage as the Mann Act. Even the official name radiates another era, which in fact is where this law belongs. Passed in 1910 as “The White Slave Traffic Act,”  the original law prevented women being taken  across state lines for “immoral purposes.”  Can a woman be arrested for driving herself across a state line? Probably.

The law’s specialty in application though was capturing famous black men with adult white women. The ambiguity of the initial law allowed this particular “crime” to be applied first to celebrity boxer Jack Johnson (who I best know as a Miles Davis disc).  Johnson was caught crossing state lines with a prostitute (or two). Frank Lloyd Wright got hit with the Mann Act as part of a custody dispute. Charlie Chaplin was also arrested under the Mann Act with an adult lover. And, of course, the most famous case of this law being used was against rocker Chuck Berry–convicted and jailed in a trial widely considered tainted by racism– on account of a underage hat check girl who quit his club and was later arrested for prostitution (not with Berry).

Anyway, while I am no legal scholar, I am not clear how the Mann Act applies here. The current version of the law reads:

“Whoever knowingly transports any individual in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or Possession of the United States, with intent that such individual engage in prostitution,or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense…”

But as Nevada has legal brothels, there would be no sexual activity here that can be charged as a criminal offense, and so the word “prostitution” must be seen separately from the “criminal offense” clause in the sentence to apply.  The result leaves the circular argument of the Mann Act: a person can be charged with a crime for traveling to perform an otherwise legal act.  The  ‘crime ‘ happens when a state line is crossed for the purpose of engaging in totally legal behavior in Nevada.  I guess that is what makes the Mann Act so notorious.

(Photo: Richard Abowitz, Line up shoes at Chicken Ranch Brothel)