18 U.S.C. § 119
Section 119 · Protection of individuals performing certain official duties
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Ovalles v. United States (2018)
Most recently applied in Ovalles v. United States (October 2018)
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.—Whoever knowingly makes restricted personal information about a covered person, or a member of the immediate family of that covered person, publicly available—
(1) with the intent to threaten, intimidate, or incite the commission of a crime of violence against that covered person, or a member of the immediate family of that covered person; or
(2) with the intent and knowledge that the restricted personal information will be used to threaten, intimidate, or facilitate the commission of a crime of violence against that covered person, or a member of the immediate family of that covered person,
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
(b) Definitions.—In this section—
(1) the term “restricted personal information” means, with respect to an individual, the Social Security number, the home address, home phone number, mobile phone number, personal email, or home fax number of, and identifiable to, that individual;
(2) the term “covered person” means—
(A) an individual designated in section 1114;
(B) a grand or petit juror, witness, or other officer in or of, any court of the United States, or an officer who may be, or was, serving at any examination or other proceeding before any United States magistrate judge or other committing magistrate;
(C) an informant or witness in a Federal criminal investigation or prosecution; or
(D) a State or local officer or employee whose restricted personal information is made publicly available because of the participation in, or assistance provided to, a Federal criminal investigation by that officer or employee;
(3) the term “crime of violence” has the meaning given the term in section 16; and
(4) the term “immediate family” has the meaning given the term in section 115(c)(2).