Court Opinion

ID: 9419875
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:51:55.817613+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:21.039837
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Murphy,
dissenting.
Today another unfortunate chapter is added to the troubled history of the White Slave Traffic Act. It is a *25chapter written in terms that misapply the statutory language and that disregard the intention of the legislative framers. It results in the imprisonment of individuals whose actions have none of the earmarks of white slavery, whatever else may be said of their conduct. I am accordingly forced to dissent.
The statute in so many words refers to transportation of women and girls across state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” The issue here is whether the act of taking polygamous or plural wives across state lines, or taking girls across state borders for the purpose of entering into plural marriage, constitutes transportation “for any other immoral purpose” so as to come within the interdict of the statute.
The Court holds, and I agree, that under the ejusdem generis rule of statutory construction the phrase “any other immoral purpose” must be confined to the same class of unlawful sexual immoralities as that to which prostitution and debauchery belong. But I disagree with the conclusion that polygamy is “in the same genus” as prostitution and debauchery and hence within the phrase “any other immoral purpose” simply because it has sexual connotations and has “long been branded as immoral in the law” of this nation. Such reasoning ignores reality and results in an unfair application of the statutory words.
It is not my purpose to defend the practice of polygamy or to claim that it is morally the equivalent of monogamy. But it is essential to understand what it is, as well as what it is not. Only in that way can we intelligently decide whether it falls within the same genus as prostitution or debauchery.
There are four fundamental forms of marriage: (1) monogamy; (2) polygyny, or one man with several wives; (3) polyandry, or one woman with several husbands; and (4) group marriage. The term “polygamy” covers both *26polygyny and polyandry. Thus we are dealing here with polygyny, one of the basic forms of marriage. Historically, its use has far exceeded that of any other form. It was quite common among ancient civilizations and was referred to many times by the writers of the Old Testament; even today it is to be found frequently among certain pagan and non-Christian peoples of the world. We must recognize, then, that polygyny, like other forms of marriage, is basically a cultural institution rooted deeply in the religious beliefs and social mores of those societies in which it appears. It is equally true that the beliefs and mores of the dominant culture of the contemporary world condemn the practice as immoral and substitute monogamy in its place. To those beliefs and mores I subscribe, but that does not alter the fact that polygyny is a form of marriage built upon a set of social and moral principles. It must be recognized and treated as such.
The Court states that polygamy is “a notorious example of promiscuity.” The important fact, however, is that, despite the differences that may exist between polygamy and monogamy, such differences do not place polygamy in the same category as prostitution or debauchery. When we use those terms we are speaking of acts of an entirely different nature, having no relation whatever to the various forms of marriage. It takes no elaboration here to point out that marriage, even when it occurs in a form of which we disapprove, is not to be compared with prostitution or debauchery or other immoralities of that character.
The Court’s failure to recognize this vital distinction and its insistence that polygyny is “in the same genus” as prostitution and debauchery do violence to the anthropological factors involved. Even etymologically, the words.“polygyny” and “polygamy” are quite distinct from “prostitution, ” “debauchery” and words of that ilk. There is thus no basis in fact for including polygyny within the *27phrase “any other immoral purpose” as used in this statute.
One word should be said about the Court’s citation of United States v. Bitty, 208 U. S. 393, and the statement that the interpretation of the statute there involved is a forceful precedent for the construction of the White Slave Traffic Act. The thought apparently is that the phrase “any other immoral purpose,” appearing in the White Slave Traffic Act, was derived from the identical phrase used in the statute regulating the immigration of aliens into the United States, the statute which was under consideration in the Bitty case. 34 Stat. 898. That case concerned itself with the portion of the immigration statute forbidding “ the importation into the United States of any alien woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution, or for any other immoral purpose.” Significantly, however, the statute made separate provision for the exclusion of “polygamists, or persons who admit their belief in the practice of polygamy.” Thus the phrase “any other immoral purpose,” following the reference to prostitution, certainly did not comprehend polygamy. And if that statute, or the interpretation given it in the Bitty case, is to be any authority here, the conclusion to be drawn is inconsistent with the result reached by the Court today. As a matter of fact, Congress has always referred to polygamy by name when it desired to deal with that subject, as distinguished from immoralities in the nature of prostitution. See, for example, 8 U. S. C. § 136 (f); 18 U. S. C. §513.
The result here reached is but another consequence of this Court’s long-continued failure to recognize that the White Slave Traffic Act, as its title indicates, is aimed solely at the diabolical interstate and international trade in white slaves, “the business of securing white women and girls and of selling them outright, or of exploiting them for immoral purposes.” H. Rep. No. 47, 61st Cong., 2d Sess., *28p. 11; S. Rep. No. 886, 61st Cong., 2d Sess., p. 11. The Act was suggested and proposed to meet conditions which had arisen in the years preceding 1910 and which had revealed themselves in their ugly details through extensive investigations. The framers of the Act specifically stated that it is not directed at immorality in general; it does not even attempt to regulate the practice of voluntary prostitution, leaving that problem to the various states. Its exclusive concern is with those girls and women who are “unwillingly forced to practice prostitution” and to engage in other similar immoralities and “whose lives are lives of involuntary servitude.” Ibid. A reading of the legislative reports and debates makes this narrow purpose so clear as to remove all doubts on the matter. And it is a purpose that has absolutely no relation to the practice of polygamy, however much that practice may have been considered immoral in 1910.
Yet this Court in Caminetti v. United States, 242 U. S. 470, over the vigorous dissent of Justice McKenna in which Chief Justice White and Justice Clarke joined, closed its eyes to the obvious and interpreted the broad words of the statute without regard to the express wishes of Congress. I think the Caminetti case can be factually distinguished from the situation at hand since it did not deal with polygamy. But the principle of the Caminetti case is still with us today, the principle of interpreting and applying the White Slave Traffic Act in disregard of the specific problem with which Congress was concerned. I believe the issue .should be met squarely and the Cami-netti case overruled. It has been on the books for nearly 30 years and its age does not justify its continued existence. Stare decisis certainly does not require a court to perpetuate a wrong for which it was responsible, especially when no rights have accrued in reliance on the error. Cf. Helvering v. Hallock, 309 U. S. 106, 121-22. Otherwise the error *29is accentuated; and individuals, whatever may be said of their morality, are fined and imprisoned contrary to the wishes of Congress. I shall not be a party to that process.
The consequence of prolonging the Caminetti principle is to make the federal courts the arbiters of the morality of those who cross state lines in the company of women and girls. They must decide what is meant by “any other immoral purpose” without regard to the standards plainly set forth by Congress. I do not believe that this falls within the legitimate scope of the judicial function. Nor does it accord the respect to which Congressional pronouncements are entitled.
Hence I would reverse the judgments of conviction in these cases.