10 U.S.C. § 923
Section 923 · Art. 123. Forgery
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 123 court decisions — leading case United States v. Faircloth (1996)
Most recently applied in Royal Truck & Trailer Sales v. Mike Kraft (September 2020)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 10 U.S.C. § 921 · 10 U.S.C. § 934 · 10 U.S.C. § 831
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) In General.—Any person subject to this chapter who—
(1) knowingly accesses a Government computer, with an unauthorized purpose, and by doing so obtains classified information, with reason to believe such information could be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation, and intentionally communicates, delivers, transmits, or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted such information to any person not entitled to receive it;
(2) intentionally accesses a Government computer, with an unauthorized purpose, and thereby obtains classified or other protected information from any Government computer; or
(3) knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causes damage without authorization to a Government computer;
shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
(b) Definitions.—In this section:
(1) The term "computer" has the meaning given that term in section 1030 of title 18.
(2) The term "Government computer" means a computer owned or operated by or on behalf of the United States Government.
(3) The term "damage" has the meaning given that term in section 1030 of title 18.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Prior Provisions
A prior section 923 was renumbered section 905 of this title.
Effective Date
Section effective on Jan. 1, 2019, as designated by the President, with implementing regulations and provisions relating to applicability to various situations, see section 5542 of Pub. L. 114–328 and Ex. Ord. No. 13825, set out as notes under section 801 of this title.