16 U.S.C. § 559
Section 559 · Arrests by employees of Forest Service for violations of laws and regulations
Amended 5 times on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case United States v. Patrin (1978)
Most recently applied in 695 F. Supp. 294 - United States v. Rainbow Family (June 1988)
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.
All persons employed in the Forest Service of the United States shall have authority to make arrests for the violation of the laws and regulations relating to the national forests, and any person so arrested shall be taken before the nearest United States magistrate judge, within whose jurisdiction the forest is located, for trial; and upon sworn information by any competent person any United States magistrate judge in the proper jurisdiction shall issue process for the arrest of any person charged with the violation of said laws and regulations; but nothing herein contained shall be construed as preventing the arrest by any officer of the United States, without process, of any person taken in the act of violating said laws and regulations.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Codification
“Forest Service of the United States” substituted for “forest reserve of the United States” as the probable intent of Congress in that the federal forest reserves were transferred from Department of the Interior to Department of Agriculture by act Feb. 1, 1905, ch. 288, §1, 33 Stat. 628, and administration of forest reserves was placed in Forest Service which was created by that act.
Words “national forests” and “forest” substituted for “forest reserves” and “reservation”, respectively, on authority of act Mar. 4, 1907, ch. 2907, 34 Stat. 1269, which provided that forest reserves shall hereafter be known as national forests.
That part of act Mar. 3, 1905, which related to arrests by employees of the National Park Service for violations of laws and regulations, was (prior to the amendment made by Pub. L 94–458) classified to section 10 of this title.
Amendments
1976—Pub. L. 91–383, §10(a)(2), as added Pub. L. 94–458, struck out “and national parks” after “national forests” and “or national park” after “jurisdiction the forest”.
Change of Name
“United States magistrate judge” substituted for “United States magistrate” wherever appearing in text pursuant to section 321 of Pub. L. 101–650, set out as a note under section 631 of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure. Previously, “United States magistrate” substituted for “United States commissioner” pursuant to Pub. L. 90–578. See chapter 43 (§631 et seq.) of Title 28.