18 U.S.C. § 1509
Section 1509 · Obstruction of court orders
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 30 court decisions — leading case Stern v. Federal Bureau of Investigation (1984)
Most recently applied in United States v. Pangelinan (October 2007)
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, by threats or force, willfully prevents, obstructs, impedes, or interferes with, or willfully attempts to prevent, obstruct, impede, or interfere with, the due exercise of rights or the performance of duties under any order, judgment, or decree of a court of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
No injunctive or other civil relief against the conduct made criminal by this section shall be denied on the ground that such conduct is a crime.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $1,000” in first par.
Cross References
Minor offenses tried by United States magistrate judges as excluding offenses punishable under this section, see section 3401 of this title.