Crossing over the line

by David J. Langum

Until 1986 any man who, with romance on his mind, traveled with a woman other than his wife across the state lines of America could be guilty of a federal felony. Such was the legacy of the notorious Mann Act of 1910. Spawned by a national wave of "white slave trade" hysteria, the act was created by Congress as a weapon against forced prostitution. It was so loosely worded that the Supreme Court soon extended its coverage: any man who intended to commit an "immoral act" with a woman who had crossed a state line, either with him or to visit him, could be prosecuted. In the 1920s, this sort of amorous behavior could send a man to prison for up to five years. . Crossing over the Line is the first history of the Mann Act's often bizarre career, from its passage to the amendment that finally laid it low. In David J. Langum's hands, the story of the act becomes an entertaining cautionary tale about the folly of legislating private morality. Langum recounts the colorful details of numerous co