On Wednesday, Sean Diddy Combs was found guilty of prostitution-related charges under the federal Mann Act, a legislation that has been in place for a century to combat sex trafficking.
Despite being exonerated of more serious crimes, Combs was found guilty of transporting individuals across the nation for paid sex, including his girlfriends and male prostitutes.
The legislation has been applied to notable convictions throughout the years, such as that of R&B artist R. Kelly, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, musician Chuck Berry, and boxer Jack Johnson more than a century ago.
The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School claims that because of its expansive language and a later Supreme Court interpretation, prosecutors were once able to file cases against interracial couples and, subsequently, many more people in consensual relationships.
Since its amendment in the 1980s, the law has mainly been used to cases involving interstate prostitution or those involving the transportation of minors across state boundaries for sex.
Here are certain legal facts to be aware of.
What makes it the Mann Act?
The bill, named for Republican U.S. Representative James Robert Mann of Illinois, was passed by Congress in 1910.
The White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910 is another name for it.
What relevance does it have to the Combs case?
Combs was found guilty on charges involving two ex-girlfriends: a woman who testified under the alias Jane and R&B star Cassie.
During their trial, each claimed that Combs had coerced them into engaging in demeaning sex marathons with unidentified people who were compensated for the sex. According to Jane, Combs once beat her for refusing to take part. During one such event, Cassie claimed that Combs beat her and pulled her down a hotel hallway when she attempted to leave.
Combs was found guilty of transporting individuals to engage in prostitution, but he was cleared of counts of sex trafficking and racketeering.
What is the background to it?
Originally, the 1910 rule forbade the transportation of any woman or girl for prostitution, debauchery, or any other immoral purpose, either within the United States or internationally. According to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, it came after a congressionally constituted commission in 1907 to investigate the problem of immigrant sex workers, which held the opinion that a girl would only become a prostitute if she was drugged or imprisoned.
Jack Johnson, who became the first Black boxer to win a world heavyweight title in 1910, was convicted thanks to the law. An all-white jury found Johnson guilty in 1913 of breaking the Mann Act by traveling with his white partner, a sex worker.
(In 2018, President Donald Trump granted Johnson a posthumous pardon, stating that he had served 10 months in prison for what many consider to be a racially motivated injustice.)
Since 1910, how has the legislation changed?
According to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, the justices of the Supreme Court decided in a 1917 judgment that illegal adultery, even when consenting, amounted to a “immoral purpose.”
A 1986 amendment changed the definition of debauchery and immoral purpose to any sexual behavior for which a person may be prosecuted with a crime, making the statute gender-neutral and thereby ending the Act’s attempt to legislate morality.
However, in February of last year, Combs’ legal team filed a move to dismiss a Mann Act allegation, stating that the law has a lengthy and concerning history as a discriminatory statute.
The prosecution said that pursuing the case was not racist. People of color make up the majority of Combs’ accusations.
