Hoke & Economides v. United States
The Court upheld the White Slave Traffic Act (the Mann Act), ruling that Congress could criminalize persuading or transporting a woman across state lines for prostitution under its power to regulate interstate commerce.
The decision confirmed that Congress could bar the use of interstate travel for immoral purposes even though states retained their own separate power to police prostitution and morality within their borders.
“It is misleading to s.ay that men and women have rights. Their rights cannot fortify or sanction their wrongs; and if they employ interstate transportation as a facility of their wrongs, it may be forbidden to them”
The Court's explanation that a right to travel cannot shield its use for wrongful purposes.
How it got here: The defendants challenged the indictment by demurrer, were convicted after trial, and brought the case to the Supreme Court on a writ of error.
The Case in Depth
What happened
Effie Hoke and Basile Economides were charged with persuading and helping to persuade a woman, Annette Baden, to travel from New Orleans to Beaumont, Texas for prostitution, with a related count involving a girl under eighteen. They were convicted under the newly enacted White Slave Traffic Act and sentenced to prison. They challenged the law as an unconstitutional intrusion on matters reserved to the states.
The question before the Court
Could Congress use its power over interstate commerce to make it a crime to persuade a woman to travel between states for prostitution?
Why it matters
The ruling gave federal prosecutors lasting authority to pursue people who transport or induce others to cross state lines for prostitution, even though such conduct also violated state laws. It confirmed a broader principle that Congress can attach conditions to the use of interstate transportation to prevent it from being used for harmful purposes, extending federal reach into everyday human movement.
What changes now
The Court found no reversible error in any of the trial rulings on evidence or jury instructions and affirmed the convictions and sentences of both defendants. This was a final decision on the merits resolving the constitutional challenge to the White Slave Traffic Act, and the law remained in force for use by federal prosecutors going forward.
What this does not decide
The Court expressly limited its holding to transportation obtained, aided, or induced for immoral purposes, saying it did not need to go further. It did not decide whether Congress could ban the manufacture or in-state sale of goods or conduct, only that Congress could condition use of interstate transportation itself.
Concurrences and dissents
How the Justices voted
Majority (1). Justice McKenna (author).
How the Court got there
The legal reasoning, step by step
- The Court framed the central issue as whether Congress's power 'to regulate commerce among the several States' is broad enough to cover conditions on the interstate movement of people, not just goods, since commerce includes the transportation of persons as well as property.
- The Court rejected the defendants' argument that a person's freedom to travel between states shields anyone who helps arrange that travel for an immoral purpose, explaining that a right exercised for legitimate ends cannot be stretched to protect the same right when used for wrongful ends.
- The Court reasoned that while states retain full authority to punish prostitution and immorality happening within their own borders, there is a separate zone — interstate transportation itself — that only Congress can regulate, so Congress exercising power there does not invade state authority.
- Drawing on earlier rulings upholding federal bans on interstate lottery tickets, obscene literature, and adulterated food and drugs, the Court reasoned that if Congress can deny the facility of interstate transportation to those other harms, it can likewise deny that facility to the enticement of women and girls into prostitution.
- Applying this reasoning, the Court concluded that Congress's power over interstate transportation is complete in itself and lets Congress adopt measures, including ones resembling ordinary police regulations, that are convenient to controlling how that transportation is used.
Doctrinal impact
Cases affected by this decision
Reaffirms Lottery Case (188 U.S. 321)
Relied on as support that Congress can ban interstate transportation used for lotteries.
Reaffirms Hipolite Egg Co. v. United States (220 U.S. 45)
Cited as showing Congress's broad power to bar goods used for harmful purposes from interstate commerce.