40 U.S.C. § 3112
Section 3112 · Federal jurisdiction
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 22 court decisions — leading case United States v. Fields (2008)
Most recently applied in United States of America v. Frank N. Staples United States of America v. Jason L. Gerhard (May 2025)
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.
(a) Exclusive Jurisdiction Not Required.—It is not required that the Federal Government obtain exclusive jurisdiction in the United States over land or an interest in land it acquires.
(b) Acquisition and Acceptance of Jurisdiction.—When the head of a department, agency, or independent establishment of the Government, or other authorized officer of the department, agency, or independent establishment, considers it desirable, that individual may accept or secure, from the State in which land or an interest in land that is under the immediate jurisdiction, custody, or control of the individual is situated, consent to, or cession of, any jurisdiction over the land or interest not previously obtained. The individual shall indicate acceptance of jurisdiction on behalf of the Government by filing a notice of acceptance with the Governor of the State or in another manner prescribed by the laws of the State where the land is situated.
(c) Presumption.—It is conclusively presumed that jurisdiction has not been accepted until the Government accepts jurisdiction over land as provided in this section.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
SectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large) 3112(a) 40:255 (last par. 1st sentence words before semicolon). R.S. §355 (last par.); June 28, 1930, ch. 710, 46 Stat. 828; Feb. 1, 1940, ch. 18, 54 Stat. 19; Oct. 9, 1940, ch. 793, 54 Stat. 1083. 3112(b) 40:255 (last par. 1st sentence words after semicolon). 3112(c) 40:255 (last par. last sentence). Subsection (a) is substituted for 40:255 (last par. 1st sentence words before semicolon) to eliminate unnecessary words.
In subsection (b), the words “exclusive or partial” are omitted as unnecessary.