Opinion ID: 2334650
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Johnson Act

Text: In 1951, Congress enacted what has become popularly known as the Johnson Act. Pub.L. No. 81-906, 64 Stat. 1134 (1951) (current version at 15 U.S.C. §§ 1171-1178). The stated purpose of the Johnson Act is to prohibit transportation of gambling devices in interstate and foreign commerce. Pub.L. No. 81-906 (title). The 1951 Act also prohibited, among other things, the use and possession of gambling devices within the District of Columbia and certain other jurisdictions. Section 1172 of the Johnson Act prohibits the transportation of gambling devices to any place in a State or a possession of the United States from any place outside of such State or possession. 15 U.S.C. § 1172(a). [2] However, section 1172 contains an opt-out provision by which states can exempt themselves from the provisions of this section. Id. Although the District of Columbia was not originally defined as a state for purposes of the Johnson Act, Congress amended that definition in 1962 to include the District. [3] See Gambling Devices Act of 1962, Pub. L. No. 87-840, § 3, 76 Stat. 1075 (1962) (codified as amended at 15 U.S.C. § 1171(b)). Section 1175 of the Johnson Act, by contrast, goes well beyond regulating the transportation of gambling devices in interstate and foreign commerce and imposes wide-ranging restrictions within the District of Columbia and certain possessions and territories of the United States. [4] 15 U.S.C. § 1175(a). That section makes it unlawful to manufacture, recondition, repair, sell, transport, possess, or use any gambling device within one of the covered jurisdictions. Id. The District of Columbia is named individually as a jurisdiction covered by section 1175, and Congress did not change that in 1962 when it defined the District as a state. Moreover, there is no opt-out provision in section 1175. [5] The result is that the prohibitions contained in section 1175 continue to apply to the District of Columbia.