18 U.S.C. § 712
Section 712 · Misuse of names, words, emblems, or insignia
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case United States v. Boneparth (1971)
Most recently applied in United States v. Joseph Rainier (May 1996)
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, in the course of collecting or aiding in the collection of private debts or obligations, or being engaged in furnishing private police, investigation, or other private detective services, uses or employs in any communication, correspondence, notice, advertisement, or circular the words “national”, “Federal”, or “United States”, the initials “U.S.”, or any emblem, insignia, or name, for the purpose of conveying and in a manner reasonably calculated to convey the false impression that such communication is from a department, agency, bureau, or instrumentality of the United States or in any manner represents the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $1,000”.
1973—Pub. L. 93–147 substituted “Misuse of names, words, emblems, or insignia” for “Misuse of names by collecting agencies or private detective agencies to indicate Federal agency” in section catchline and substituted “in the course” and “such communication is from a department” for “being engaged in the business” and “such business is a department” respectively, and struck out “as part of the firm name of such business,” after “detective services, uses”.
Effective Date
Section 2 of Pub. L. 86–291 provided that: “The provisions of this section [enacting this section] shall become effective sixty days from the enactment thereof [Sept. 21, 1959].”