18 U.S.C. § 1918
Section 1918 · Disloyalty and asserting the right to strike against the Government
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 61 court decisions — leading case Schapansky v. Department of Transportation (1984)
Most recently applied in Linthicum v. Wagner (February 2024)
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 violates the provision of section 7311 of title 5 that an individual may not accept or hold a position in the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia if he—
(1) advocates the overthrow of our constitutional form of government;
(2) is a member of an organization that he knows advocates the overthrow of our constitutional form of government;
(3) participates in a strike, or asserts the right to strike, against the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia; or
(4) is a member of an organization of employees of the Government of the United States or of individuals employed by the government of the District of Columbia that he knows asserts the right to strike against the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia;
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year and a day, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Statutes at Large 5 U.S.C. 118r. Aug. 9, 1955, ch. 690, §3, 69 Stat. 625. [Uncodified.] June 29, 1956, ch. 479, §3 (as applicable to the Act of Aug. 9, 1955, ch. 690, §3, 69 Stat. 625), 70 Stat. 453. The section is rewritten to conform to the style of title 18. The statement of the acts prohibited is supplied from the Act of Aug. 9, 1955, ch. 690, §1, 69 Stat. 624, which is codified in section 7311 of title 5, United States Code.
The words “From and after July 1, 1956”, appearing in the Act of June 29, 1956, are omitted as executed.
The words “shall be guilty of a felony” are omitted as unnecessary in view of the definitive section 1 of this title. (See reviser's note under section 550 of this title.)
Amendments
1996—Pub. L. 104–294 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $1,000” in concluding provisions.