49 U.S.C. § 30301
Section 30301 · Definitions
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case United States v. State (2012)
Most recently applied in Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association v. EPA (November 2021)
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.
In this chapter—
(1) “alcohol” has the same meaning given that term in regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Transportation.
(2) “chief driver licensing official” means the official in a State who is authorized to—
(A) maintain a record about a motor vehicle operator's license issued by the State; and
(B) issue, deny, revoke, suspend, or cancel a motor vehicle operator's license issued by the State.
(3) “controlled substance” has the same meaning given that term in section 102 of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 (21 U.S.C. 802).
(4) “motor vehicle” means a vehicle, machine, tractor, trailer, or semitrailer propelled or drawn by mechanical power and used on public streets, roads, or highways, but does not include a vehicle operated only on a rail line.
(5) “motor vehicle operator's license” means a license issued by a State authorizing an individual to operate a motor vehicle on public streets, roads, or highways.
(6) “participating State” means a State that has notified the Secretary under section 30303 of this title of its participation in the National Driver Register.
(7) “State” means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and any other territory or possession of the United States.
(8) “State of record” means a State that has given the Secretary a report under section 30304 of this title about an individual who is the subject of a request for information made under section 30305 of this title.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
In clauses (4) and (5), the words “public streets, roads, or highways” are substituted for “highway” and “ ‘highway’ means any road or street” for consistency in the revised title.
In clause (4), the words “rail line” are substituted for “rail or rails” for consistency in the revised title.
The definitions of “Secretary”, “Register”, and “Register system” are omitted as surplus because the complete name of the Secretary of Transportation and the National Driver Register are used the first time the terms appear in a section.
Termination of Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
For termination of Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, see note set out preceding section 1681 of Title 48, Territories and Insular Possessions.