49 U.S.C. § 46506
Section 46506 · Application of certain criminal laws to acts on aircraft
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 21 court decisions — leading case United States v. Polizzi (2008)
Most recently applied in Carroll v. Trump (June 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.
An individual on an aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States who commits an act that—
(1) if committed in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States (as defined in section 7 of title 18) would violate section 113, 114, 661, 662, 1111, 1112, 1113, or 2111 or chapter 109A of title 18, shall be fined under title 18, imprisoned under that section or chapter, or both; or
(2) if committed in the District of Columbia would violate section 9 of the Act of July 29, 1892 (D.C. Code §22-1112), shall be fined under title 18, imprisoned under section 9 of the Act, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
In clause (1), the words “fined under title 18, imprisoned under that section or chapter, or both” are substituted for “punished as provided therein” for consistency with title 18.
In clause (2), the words “fined under title 18, imprisoned under section 9 of the Act, or both” are substituted for “punished as provided therein” for consistency with title 18.
References in Text
Section 9 of the Act of July 29, 1892, referred to in par. (2), is section 9 of act July 29, 1892, ch. 320, 27 Stat. 324, as amended, which appears in section 22–1112 of Title 22, Criminal Offenses, of the District of Columbia Code.