18 U.S.C. § 2
Section 2 · Principals
Applied in 15,656 court decisions — leading case United States v. Young (1985)
Most recently applied in In Re: Wanda Vázquez Garced (March 2026)
Applied most in the Ninth Circuit Circuit (1,193 decisions)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 21 U.S.C. § 841 · 21 U.S.C. § 846 · 18 U.S.C. § 924
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.
At any time after the filing of the indictment or information, any party may move for a pretrial conference to consider matters relating to classified information that may arise in connection with the prosecution. Following such motion, or on its own motion, the court shall promptly hold a pretrial conference to establish the timing of requests for discovery, the provision of notice required by section 5 of this Act, and the initiation of the procedure established by section 6 of this Act. In addition, at the pretrial conference the court may consider any matters which relate to classified information or which may promote a fair and expeditious trial. No admission made by the defendant or by any attorney for the defendant at such a conference may be used against the defendant unless the admission is in writing and is signed by the defendant and by the attorney for the defendant.