19 U.S.C. § 66
Section 66 · Rules and forms prescribed by Secretary
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 35 court decisions — leading case Hartford Fire Insurance v. United States (2008)
Most recently applied in United States v. Sterling Islands, Inc. (May 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 shall prescribe forms of entries, oaths, bonds, and other papers, and rules and regulations not inconsistent with law, to be used in carrying out the provisions of law relating to raising revenue from imports, or to duties on imports, or to warehousing, and shall give such directions to customs officers and prescribe such rules and forms to be observed by them as may be necessary for the proper execution of the law.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Codification
R.S. §251 derived from acts Feb. 10, 1830, ch. 11, §§14, 15, 3 Stat. 543; Aug. 6, 1846, ch. 84, §5, 9 Stat. 55; May 14, 1856, Res. 9, 11 Stat. 144; June 30, 1864, ch. 172, §8, 13 Stat. 221; July 14, 1870, ch. 255, §34, 16 Stat. 271. R.S. §251, which was also classified in part to section 427 of former Title 31, was repealed in part and reenacted as section 321(a)(5) of Title 31, Money and Finance, by Pub. L. 97–258, §4(b), Sept. 13, 1982, 96 Stat. 1067.
Amendments
1970—Pub. L. 91–271 substituted reference to customs officers for reference to collectors.
Effective Date of 1970 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 91–271 effective with respect to articles entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after Oct. 1, 1970, and such other articles entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption prior to such date, or with respect to which a protest has not been disallowed in whole or in part before Oct. 1, 1970, see section 203 of Pub. L. 91–271, set out as a note under section 1500 of this title.
Transfer of Functions
All offices of collector of customs, comptroller of customs, surveyor of customs, and appraiser of merchandise in Bureau of Customs of Department of the Treasury to which appointments were required to be made by President with advice and consent of Senate ordered abolished, with such offices to be terminated not later than December 31, 1966, by Reorg. Plan No. 1 of 1965, eff. May 25, 1965, 30 F.R. 7035, 79 Stat. 1317, set out as a note under section 1 of this title. All functions of offices eliminated were already vested in Secretary of the Treasury by Reorg. Plan No. 26 of 1950, eff. July 31, 1950, 15 F.R. 4935, 64 Stat. 1280, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.