Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs will be sentenced under the Mann Act, a prostitution law from 1910

By JONATHAN MATTISE Sean Diddy Combs is set to be sentenced Friday for violating the federal Mann Act an anti-prostitution law with a century-old history Related Articles Federal cabinet shutdown not slowing down ICE Boston in Massachusetts Ticker Delta jets collide at LaGuardia Mortgage rates bump up Excavators find million in gold coins from Spanish shipwreck along Florida s Treasure Coast OpenAI now worth billion possibly making it the world s the majority valuable startup Interstellar comet swinging past Mars as a fleet of spacecraft looks on Although he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges Combs was convicted in July of flying people around the country including his girlfriends and male sex workers to engage in paid sexual encounters The Mann Act makes it illegal to passage someone across state lines for the purpose of prostitution or other illegal sex acts Over the years the law has been used to prosecute R B superstar R Kelly Jeffrey Epstein companion Ghislaine Maxwell musician Chuck Berry and more than a century ago boxer Jack Johnson Its broad wording and a subsequent Supreme Court interpretation once allowed prosecutors to bring cases against interracial couples and eventually multiple others in consensual relationships according to Cornell Law School s Legal Information Institute The law was amended in the s and in contemporary times a lot of Mann Act prosecutions involve people accused of taking children across state lines for sexual purposes Here s what to know about the law Why it s called the Mann Act In Congress passed the bill which was named after Republican U S Rep James Robert Mann of Illinois It s also known as the White-Slave Traffic Act of How it applies to Combs development Combs was convicted of counts involving two former girlfriends the R B singer Cassie and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane Both women mentioned at trial that Combs had pressured them into degrading sex marathons with strangers who were paid for the sexual performances Jane mentioned she was once beaten by Combs for declining to participate Cassie announced that when she tried to walk out of one such event Combs beat her and dragged her down a hotel hallway Combs was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges but convicted of transporting people to engage in prostitution The history behind the law The law originally prohibited the interstate or foreign travel of any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery or for any other immoral purpose It followed a congressionally appointed commission to look into the issue of immigrant sex workers with the view that a girl would only enter prostitution if drugged or held captive according to Cornell University s Legal Information Institute The law was used to secure a conviction against Jack Johnson who became the first Black boxer to win a world heavyweight title in Johnson was convicted in by an all-white jury for traveling with his white girlfriend who worked as a sex worker in violation of the Mann Act President Donald Trump posthumously pardoned Johnson in saying Johnson had served months in prison for what various view as a racially motivated injustice How the law has changed since In a Supreme Court episode the justices ruled that illicit fornication even when consensual amounted to an immoral purpose according to Cornell s Legal Information Institute A update made the law gender-neutral and effectively ended the act s role in trying to legislate morality by changing debauchery and immoral purpose to any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense The act received additional amendments in and to address issues of sexual exploitation of children How much prison time could Combs get Prosecutors have appealed the judge to sentence Combs to more than years in prison Combs lawyers have explained he should be sentenced to no more than a year arguing that testimony during the trial about alleged violent acts against women and others wasn t part of the conviction