18 U.S.C. § 1706
Section 1706 · Injury to mail bags
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 10 court decisions — leading case United States v. McCulley (1982)
Most recently applied in Commonwealth v. Piersall (August 2006)
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 tears, cuts, or otherwise injures any mail bag, pouch, or other thing used or designed for use in the conveyance of the mail, or draws or breaks any staple or loosens any part of any lock, chain, or strap attached thereto, with intent to rob or steal any such mail, or to render the same insecure, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three 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., §312 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §189, 35 Stat. 1124).
A fine of “$1,000” was substituted for “$500” thus increasing the maximum to correspond with other comparable sections. (See section 1705 of this title.)
Minor verbal changes were made.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $1,000”.