Martin v. United States, 389 F.2d 895 (5th Cir. 1968)

Fifth Circuit decision of 25 January 1968 upholding the Wire Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1084, as applied to wagers telephoned from Houston to Las Vegas.

Date: 1968-01-25
Kind: court-opinion
Source: CourtListener (Free Law Project), text of the opinion
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Docket: No. 23828
Rights: Opinion of a United States court, a federal work in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. CourtListener (Free Law Project) hosts the text; it is not the source institution.

Robert Lynn Martin and Maurice Daniel Dodson appealed convictions on a stipulated record. Judge Wisdom wrote: “The narrow question for review is the constitutionality of the Federal Anti-Wagering Law, 18 U.S.C. § 1084,” as applied in the case. The appellants “were convicted for transmitting wagers and wagering information by telephone in interstate commerce — between Houston, Texas and Las Vegas, Nevada”; all the calls in the count were made from Houston to Las Vegas.

“This is not the first constitutional attack on section 1084. Without exception, however, the attack has failed.” The court found the section constitutional “as applied to the transmission of wagers from Texas to Nevada” and affirmed. The opinion was modified on denial of rehearing on March 5, 1968.

The Wire Act, 75 Stat. 491, is filed in the Laws section.

itemWire Act: 75 Stat. 491 (Public Law 87-216), 13 September 1961, adding 18 U.S.C. 1084The 1961 Act adding 18 U.S.C. 1084, which made it a crime for a person in the business of betting or wagering knowingly to use a wire communication facility to transmit bets, wagers or wagering information across state or national lines.itemSagansky v. United States, 358 F.2d 195 (1st Cir. 1966)First Circuit decision of 25 March 1966 holding that a bookmaker who takes a bet over an interstate telephone call can "use" a wire facility under the Wire Act, but ordering new trials on the entrapment instructions.