THAT carries a mandatory minimum? For real?

Now, I personally think all mandatory minimums are unnecessary (and unwise and unjust), but some have the added bonus of being outdated.

Take 19 U.S.C. § 283.  Never heard of it?  Of course you haven't.  The law was created in 1886.  It makes it a crime to fail to report and pay duties on "saloon stores or supplies" purchased at foreign ports when the ship carrying those supplies docks in the United States.  This nefarious act carries a mandatory minimum prison term of 3 months.

Really? Seriously?  I know I'll definitely think twice the next time I take a cruise, buy a spitoon, and fail to pay the duties on it when I return to the good 'ol U.S. of A.

One of the major premises behind mandatory minimums is that they'll scare people into not committing those crimes. This blog post is a good example of how that premise only holds water if people actually know what the crime is, and what the mandatory minimum is! 

Cruise-takers and spitoon-buyers, beware. You are now on notice that 19 U.S.C. § 283 is out there.  If you don't want to spend three months in a federal prison, listen to your wife and put the spitoon back on the shelf, or just declare the stupid thing when you make port.

--Stowe