18 U.S.C. § 1506
Section 1506 · Theft or alteration of record or process; false bail
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 21 court decisions — leading case Stern v. Federal Bureau of Investigation (1984)
Most recently applied in United States v. Thomas Robertson (October 2023)
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.
Whoever feloniously steals, takes away, alters, falsifies, or otherwise avoids any record, writ, process, or other proceeding, in any court of the United States, whereby any judgment is reversed, made void, or does not take effect; or
Whoever acknowledges, or procures to be acknowledged in any such court, any recognizance, bail, or judgment, in the name of any other person not privy or consenting to the same—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §233 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §127, 35 Stat. 1111).
The term of imprisonment was reduced from 7 to 5 years, to conform the punishment with like ones for similar offenses. (See section 1503 of this title.)
Minor changes were made in phraseology.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $5,000” in last par.
Cross References
Concealment, removal or destruction of records, see section 2071 of this title.
Embezzlement or theft of records, generally, see section 641 of this title.