The All-American Witch Hunt : Examining the Constitutionality of Venereal Disease Control From 1918 to the 1970’s

Color poster with text, charts, and images.Beginning in 1918, women across the United States became the government-endorsed target of suspicion as potential carriers of what is now referred to as Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI’s), especially syphilis and gonorrhea. The Chamberlain-Kahn Act of 1918, and the Venereal Disease Control Act of 1938 provided a source of funding for states to carry out their own campaigns against STI’s. These campaigns included the detention, quarantine, and mandated treatment of suspected ‘prostitutes.’ The Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right “to be secure in their persons” against unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right of due process, would both seem to render these acts unconstitutional. But they did not. This paper documents the legislative, judicial, and financial factors that enabled federal and state government to enforce these acts for nearly 50 years.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Program