18 U.S.C. § 1738
Section 1738 · Repealed. Pub. L. 106578, 4, Dec. 28, 2000, 114 Stat. 3076]
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Prymer v. Ogden (1994)
Most recently applied in 625 F. Supp. 2d 459 - Preferred Automotive Sales, Inc. v. DCFS USA, LLC (June 2009)
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.
(a) Whoever, being in the business of furnishing identification documents for valuable consideration, and in the furtherance of that business, uses the mails for the mailing, carriage in the mails, or delivery of, or causes to be transported in interstate or foreign commerce, any identification document—
(1) which bears a birth date or age purported to be that of the person named in such identification document; and
(2) knowing that such document fails to carry diagonally printed clearly and indelibly on both the front and back “NOT A GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT” in capital letters in not less than twelve point type;
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
(b) For purposes of this section the term “identification document” means a document which is of a type intended or commonly accepted for the purpose of identification of individuals and which is not issued by or under the authority of a government.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1994—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $1,000” in concluding provisions.