15 U.S.C. § 34
Section 34 · Definitions applicable to sections 34 to 36
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 42 court decisions — leading case Kern-Tulare Water District v. City of Bakersfield (1986)
Most recently applied in Raymond Benitez v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital (March 2021)
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.
For purposes of sections 34 to 36 of this title—
(1) the term “local government” means—
(A) a city, county, parish, town, township, village, or any other general function governmental unit established by State law, or
(B) a school district, sanitary district, or any other special function governmental unit established by State law in one or more States,
(2) the term “person” has the meaning given it in subsection (a) of the first section of the Clayton Act [15 U.S.C. 12(a)], but does not include any local government as defined in paragraph (1) of this section, and
(3) the term “State” has the meaning given it in section 4G(2) of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 15g(2)).
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Effective Date
Section 6 of Pub. L. 98–544 provided that: “This Act [enacting this section, sections 35 and 36 of this title, and provisions set out as a note under section 1 of this title] shall take effect thirty days before the date of the enactment of this Act [Oct. 24, 1984].”