12 U.S.C. § 302
Section 302 · Number of members; classes
This is § 4 of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case Freytag v. Commissioner (1991)
Most recently applied in Trump v. Cook (U.S. 2026, slip opinion) (June 2026)
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.
Such board of directors shall be selected as hereinafter specified and shall consist of nine members, holding office for three years, and divided into three classes, designated as classes A, B, and C.
Class A shall consist of three members, without discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, or national origin, who shall be chosen by and be representative of the stockholding banks.
Class B shall consist of three members, who shall represent the public and shall be elected without discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, or national origin, and with due but not exclusive consideration to the interests of agriculture, commerce, industry, services, labor, and consumers.
Class C shall consist of three members who shall be designated by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. They shall be elected to represent the public, without discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, or national origin, and with due but not exclusive consideration to the interests of agriculture, commerce, industry, services, labor, and consumers.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Codification
Section is comprised of pars. 9 to 12 of section 4 of act Dec. 23, 1913. For classification to this title of other pars. of section 4, see Codification note set out under section 301 of this title.
Provisions of section which related to appointment of Class C directors when the necessary subscriptions to the capital stock have been obtained for the organization of any Federal Reserve Bank and which required the organization committee to exercise the powers and duties appertaining to the office of chairman in the organization of such Federal Reserve Bank pending the designation of a chairman, were omitted as obsolete.
Another section 202 of Pub. L. 95–188 enacted section 225a of this title.
Amendments
1977—Second par. Pub. L. 95–188, §202(a), required Class A members to be chosen without discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex or national origin.
Third par. Pub. L. 95–188, §202(b), substituted requirement that Class B members represent the public and be elected without discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, or national origin, and with due but not exclusive consideration to the interests of agriculture, commerce, industry, services, labor, and consumers for prior requirement that such Class B members, at the time of their election, be actively engaged in their district in commerce, agriculture or some other industrial pursuit.
Fourth par. Pub. L. 95–188, §202(c), required Class C members to be elected to represent the public, without discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, or national origin, and with due but not exclusive consideration to the interests of agriculture, commerce, industry, services, labor, and consumers.
Change of Name
Section 203(a) of act Aug. 23, 1935, changed name of Federal Reserve Board to Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.