18 U.S.C. § 244
Section 244 · Discrimination against person wearing uniform of armed forces
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case Rowland v. California Men's Colony, Unit II Men's Advisory Council (1993)
Most recently applied in United States v. Al-Imam (March 2019)
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 proprietor, manager, or employee of a theater or other public place of entertainment or amusement in the District of Columbia, or in any Territory, or Possession of the United States, causes any person wearing the uniform of any of the armed forces of the United States to be discriminated against because of that uniform, shall be fined under this title.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
1948 Act
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §523 (Mar. 1, 1911, ch. 187, 36 Stat. 963; Aug. 24, 1912, ch. 387, §1, 37 Stat. 512; Jan. 28, 1915, ch. 20, §1, 38 Stat. 800).
Words “guilty of a misdemeanor”, following “shall be”, were omitted as unnecessary in view of definition of “misdemeanor” in section 1 of this title. (See reviser's note under section 212 of this title.)
Changes were made in phraseology.
1949 Act
This section [section 5] substitutes, in section 244 of title 18, U.S.C., “any of the armed forces of the United States” for the enumeration of specific branches and thereby includes the Air Force, formerly part of the Army. This clarification is necessary because of the establishment of the Air Force as a separate branch of the Armed Forces by the act of July 26, 1947.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $500”.
1949—Act May 24, 1949, substituted “any of the armed forces of the United States” for enumeration of the specific branches.
Cross References
Uniforms, wearing without authority, see section 702 of this title.