42 U.S.C. § 1994
Section 1994 · Peonage abolished
Applied in 64 court decisions — leading case Katzenbach v. Morgan (1966)
Most recently applied in State v. Bishop (January 2023)
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 holding of any person to service or labor under the system known as peonage is abolished and forever prohibited in any Territory or State of the United States; and all acts, laws, resolutions, orders, regulations, or usages of any Territory or State, which have heretofore established, maintained, or enforced, or by virtue of which any attempt shall hereafter be made to establish, maintain, or enforce, directly or indirectly, the voluntary or involuntary service or labor of any persons as peons, in liquidation of any debt or obligation, or otherwise, are declared null and void.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Codification
R.S. §1990 derived from act Mar. 2, 1867, ch. 187, §1, 14 Stat. 546.
Section was formerly classified to section 56 of Title 8, Aliens and Nationality.