Caveats: Asking for purposes of simple curiousity (and fighting of ignorance); not expecting legal opinion; not planning on doing this; not a US citizen… did I miss anything?
An odd thought came to me when reading a comment on a news site, where someone linked US CODE: Title 18,2423. Transportation of minors, and noted that unlike sections a) and b), section c) did not require “intent”.
This, along with the varying ages of consent in the US by state, and the code’s specific use of age 18, led me to wonder about a hypothetical scenario.
Say I was a US citizen, (or resident alien), and lived in a state where the age of consent was 16 (Kansas? Nevada?), and traveled to New Zealand (“foreign commerce”) – where the age of consent is also 16. If (hypothetically) I was to engage in sex with someone aged over 16, but under 18, (legal in both my home state and New Zealand), would I have committed a federal offence under this code?
Minors I don’t know about, but some years ago when my brother was nineteen and attending ASU, he took a trip to Nogales where he bought a 2-liter bottle of tequila. Drinking age in Arizona was 18 at the time but he was stopped by the customs agents at the border. Federal alcohol laws were 21 for the minimum age. When he objected vehemently, saying they just wanted the booze for themselves. They marched him over to the sink and made him pour it down himself.
Interesting, DesertDog. Yes, I don’t know what the laws are around drinking age, although the situation is a little different since your brother was trying to import the tequila (for personal use).
A more analogous situation would be getting arrested for the drinking he (hypothetically) did while in Mexico (with an age limit of 18), because the federally mandated age was 21.
No doubt… it’s just that in the scenario I’m curious about, Federal law would be trumping both locals laws, and the laws of a foreign sovereign nation.
