50 U.S.C. § 1601
Section 1601 · Termination of existing declared emergencies
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 35 court decisions — leading case Narenji v. Civiletti (1979)
Most recently applied in Feliciano v. Department Of Transportation (April 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) All powers and authorities possessed by the President, any other officer or employee of the Federal Government, or any executive agency, as defined in section 105 of title 5, as a result of the existence of any declaration of national emergency in effect on September 14, 1976, are terminated two years from September 14, 1976. Such termination shall not affect—
(1) any action taken or proceeding pending not finally concluded or determined on such date;
(2) any action or proceeding based on any act committed prior to such date; or
(3) any rights or duties that matured or penalties that were incurred prior to such date.
(b) For the purpose of this section, the words “any national emergency in effect” means a general declaration of emergency made by the President.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Short Title
Section 1 of Pub. L. 94–412 provided: “That this Act [enacting this chapter, amending section 1481 of Title 8, Aliens and Nationality, and section 2667 of Title 10, Armed Forces, repealing section 249 of Title 12, Banks and Banking, section 831d of Title 16, Conservation, section 1383 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, section 211b of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, and section 1742 of the Appendix to this title, and enacting provisions set out below] may be cited as the ‘National Emergencies Act’.”
Savings Provision
Section 501(h) of Pub. L. 94–412 provided that: “This section [amending section 1481 of Title 8, Aliens and Nationality and section 2667 of Title 10, Armed Forces, and repealing section 249 of Title 12, Banks and Banking, section 831d of Title 16, Conservation, section 1383 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, and section 211b of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare] shall not affect—
“(1) any action taken or proceeding pending not finally concluded or determined at the time of repeal;
“(2) any action or proceeding based on any act committee prior to repeal; or
“(3) any rights or duties that matured or penalties that were incurred prior to repeal.”