Hoke v. United States

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}

{{Infobox SCOTUS case

|Litigants=Hoke v. United States

|ArgueDateA=January 7

|ArgueDateB=8

|ArgueYear=1913

|DecideDate=February 24

|DecideYear=1913

|FullName=Effie Hoke and Basile Economides, Plaintiffs in Error, v. United States

|USVol=227

|USPage=308

|ParallelCitations=33 S. Ct. 281; 57 L. Ed. 523; 1913 U.S. LEXIS 2301

|Prior=

|Subsequent=

|Holding=Congress cannot regulate prostitution per se, which is strictly the province of the states, but it can regulate interstate travel for the purposes of prostitution or other "immoral purposes."

|Majority=McKenna

|JoinMajority=unanimous

|LawsApplied=U.S. Const. art. I, sec. 8, cl. 3

}}

Hoke v. United States, 227 U.S. 308 (1913), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court that held that the United States Congress could not regulate prostitution per se, which was strictly the province of the states. Congress could, however, regulate interstate travel for purposes of coercing prostitution or other "immoral purposes."

The case revolved around an offer to transport women from New Orleans to Beaumont, Texas for the purpose of prostitution. The Supreme Court upheld prosecution under the Mann Act with Justice Joseph McKenna emphasizing the right of Congress to protect against coercion in a space that states could not (e.g., in interstate commerce where neither state has jurisdiction).