The law implemented a public health program that came to be known as the American Plan, whose stated goal was to combat the spread of venereal disease.

[4] The act is named for Senator George Earle Chamberlain of Oregon and Representative Julius Kahn of California.

These large, isolated camps populated by young men were often associated with excessive alcohol consumption and illicit sexual activities with local women.

Secondly, the act authorized the quarantine of citizens suspected of having venereal disease: "That the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy are hereby authorized and directed to adopt measures for the purpose of assisting the various States in caring for civilian persons whose detention, isolation, quarantine, or commitment to institutions may be found necessary for the protection of the military and naval forces of the United States against venereal diseases."

"[7][8] The American Plan was a 1918 US federal carceral program first instituted by the Chamberlain–Kahn Act, its stated goal was to fight venereal diseases.

It legally sanctioned military, police and health officers to arrest any women 'suspected' of prostitution, force them to undergo invasive STI screenings, and jail them if positive.

In his 2018 book The Trials of Nina McCall, Scott W. Stern describes the American Plan as a decades-long government-sponsored campaign, under which public health officials were authorized to detain and examine women suspected of carrying a venereal disease and confine those who were positively diagnosed or otherwise judged to be a public health threat to a hospital or jail.