18 U.S.C. § 1709
Section 1709 · Theft of mail matter by officer or employee
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 184 court decisions — leading case United States v. Montos (1970)
Most recently applied in United States v. Jennifer Riccardi (March 2021)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 18 U.S.C. § 1703 · 18 U.S.C. § 1708 · 18 U.S.C. § 3553
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, being a Postal Service officer or employee, embezzles any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein entrusted to him or which comes into his possession intended to be conveyed by mail, or carried or delivered by any carrier, messenger, agent, or other person employed in any department of the Postal Service, or forwarded through or delivered from any post office or station thereof established by authority of the Postmaster General or of the Postal Service; or steals, abstracts, or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein, 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., §318 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §195, 35 Stat. 1125).
The provisions of said section 318 of title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., were incorporated in this section and section 1703 of this title.
The fine of “$500” was increased to “$2,000” as more proportionate to the imprisonment provision and to conform with other comparable sections. (See sections 1702 and 1708 of this title.)
Changes were made in phraseology.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $2,000”.
1970—Pub. L. 91–375 substituted “officer” for “postmaster” in section catchline, and in text substituted “Postal Service officer or employee” for “postmaster or Postal Service employee” and “entrusted” for “intrusted” and inserted “or of the Postal Service” after “Postmaster General”.
Effective Date of 1970 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 91–375 effective within 1 year after Aug. 12, 1970, on date established therefor by Board of Governors of United States Postal Service and published by it in Federal Register, see section 15(a) of Pub. L. 91–375, set out as an Effective Date note preceding section 101 of Title 39, Postal Service.