19 U.S.C. § 1582
Section 1582 · Search of persons and baggage; regulations
This is the Tariff Act of 1930
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 87 court decisions — leading case United States v. Ramsey (1977)
Most recently applied in United States v. Donald Wanjiku (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.
The Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe regulations for the search of persons and baggage and he is authorized to employ female inspectors for the examination and search of persons of their own sex; and all persons coming into the United States from foreign countries shall be liable to detention and search by authorized officers or agents of the Government under such regulations.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Prior Provisions
Provisions similar to those of this section were contained in R.S. §3064, which was superseded by act Sept. 21, 1922, ch. 356, title IV, §582, 42 Stat. 979, and was repealed by section 642 thereof. Section 582 of the 1922 act was superseded by section 582 of act June 17, 1930, comprising this section, and repealed by section 651(a)(1) of the 1930 act.