18 U.S.C. § 499
Section 499 · Military, naval, or official passes
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 19 court decisions — leading case United States v. Heldt (1981)
Most recently applied in United States v. Rogers (February 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 falsely makes, forges, counterfeits, alters, or tampers with any naval, military, or official pass or permit, issued by or under the authority of the United States, or with intent to defraud uses or possesses any such pass or permit, or personates or falsely represents himself to be or not to be a person to whom such pass or permit has been duly issued, or willfully allows any other person to have or use any such pass or permit, issued for his use alone, 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., §132 (June 15, 1917, ch. 30, title X, §3, 40 Stat. 228).
Changes were made in phraseology.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $2,000”.
Canal Zone
Applicability of section to Canal Zone, see section 14 of this title.
Cross References
Jurisdiction of offenses, see section 3241 of this title.
Letters, writings, etc., in violation of this section as nonmailable, see section 1717 of this title.