# What comes to mind when you hear the phrase 'moral turpitude'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 30, 2024, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979 "2024-04-30T18:48:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/21 "2024-04-30T22:06:05Z")
I mostly heard it with the Clinton/Monica scandal and impeachment. Haven’t heard it so much since. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/22 "2024-04-30T22:12:11Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Contract law, specifically the sort of morality clauses Hollywood stars used to sign with the studios that allowed the studios to fire them for scandal. The term may still be in use in contracts relating to businesses that sell franchises. These businesses may have public images they want to keep family-friendly. For example, you can’t buy a KFC franchise and do funny stuff with chickens (lest it become public). ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/23 "2024-04-30T22:18:18Z")
Someone who’s morals are stuck in a jar of blue, thick, Venezuelan petroleum. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/24 "2024-04-30T22:36:04Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Lots of “have you committed a crime of moral turpitude” Well, the forms haven’t changed _that much_. Crimes involving “moral turpitude” are still very much a thing under US immigration law. Which is what I think of when I hear “moral turpitude.” That and, “Why do we try so hard to make so many lives so misrerable?” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/25 "2024-05-01T01:07:17Z")
ISTM that the very phrase “moral turpitude” calls the speaker out as blue-nosed asshat we ought to deport into space. Without a suit. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/26 "2024-05-01T01:26:39Z")
A Bloom County strip from the 80s. I believe in reference to a Blondie album. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/27 "2024-05-01T01:34:15Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > A scene with Kim Cattrall from **Porky’s**. I am deeply embarrassed to agree with this. I saw it when I was fairly young and had never heard the phase before, so the association became lodged in my brain. Curse you, brain!! Speaking of which why did a chance hearing of [Gangnam Style](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0) outside of a pizza joint lodge that fucking ear-worm in my head for the past two days? Fucking brain! ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/28 "2024-05-01T02:00:47Z")
In The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury (highly recommended) the main protagonist Howard Kirk is threatened with dismissal from the university for “gross moral turpitude”, which he considers a medieval concept involving overfamiliarity with nuns and a “very vague concept, especially these days”. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/29 "2024-05-01T02:11:26Z")
And so it is (a very vague concept). In fact, for a fleeting moment, US courts seemed poised to rule such provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (those making so-called crimes of “moral turpitude” variously grounds of inadmissibility, grounds for deportation, or bars to citizenship eligibility) unconstitutional for vagueness. But alas, it was not to be. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/30 "2024-05-01T02:28:35Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Someone who’s morals are stuck in a jar of blue, thick, Venezuelan petroleum. I laughed! ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/31 "2024-05-01T02:57:06Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > You mean porpentine. You called? Re the OP: what comes to mind, I guess, is someone who does bad things and doesn’t _care_ – no sense of guilt / regret / conscience whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/32 "2024-05-01T04:05:53Z")
This is the correct [answer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFsSI0ojp5w&t=125s) ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/33 "2024-05-01T04:08:28Z")
Politicians ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/34 "2024-05-01T04:16:41Z")
Donald Trump ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/35 "2024-05-01T04:37:41Z")
I always think of Nabokov’s _Invitation to a Beheading_, but that was “gnostical turpitude”, not moral turpitude. It’s still what comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/36 "2024-05-01T06:00:30Z")
A Cheap Date. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/37 "2024-05-01T11:43:17Z")
I think of turnips and morel mushrooms. Could be the makings of a fine soup. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/38 "2024-05-01T12:30:21Z")
Generally sold at a broth-el. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/39 "2024-05-01T12:43:00Z")
Bill Clinton and his activities under the desk in the Oval Office back in the '90s. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2024, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979/40 "2024-05-01T20:45:06Z")
Thanks, everyone. As some of you may have guessed, it has come up in my US visa application. If something is a Crime Involving Moral Turpitude (CIMT), it can have a detrimental impact on your visa. There is no direct correlation between the one blot on my criminal record and US law, so they need to determine what ‘Mischief to Private Property’ translates to, and if it involves ‘moral turpitude’. So far, it has only cost me some extra time and paperwork, along with the uncertainty. Amusingly, the extra paperwork included employment history, so I took the opportunity to underscore the fact that I worked in the office of a United Church of Canada congregation, serving under a total of 8 ordained ministers plus a director of music with an Order of Canada and an honorary doctorate for her contributions to choral music. Then there’s my involvement with the vulnerable sector (including seniors, children, and homeless people), and the fact that I have served as a lay minister for at least two services. It felt like I was saying “I’ll see your ‘moral turpitude’, and I’ll raise you ‘lay minister’.”… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-phrase-moral-turpitude/1000979.md?page=3)