18 U.S.C. § 1701
Section 1701 · Obstruction of mails generally
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 79 court decisions — leading case Matthews v. United States (2006)
Most recently applied in James v. Wilkie (March 2019)
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 knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, 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., §§324, 325 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §§201, 202, 35 Stat. 1127).
Sections 324 and 325 of title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., were consolidated with changes of phraseology necessary to effect consolidation.
Words “carriage, horse, driver or”, “car, steamboat”, and “or vessel” were omitted as covered by “any carrier or conveyance”.
The punishment provision is derived from said section 324 rather than from section 325 which provided only a fine of not more than $100 and related only to ferrymen.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $100”.
Cross References
Temporary employees of the postal service or carriers with custody, see section 1008 of Title 39, Postal Service.