50 U.S.C. § 421
Section 421 · Protection of identities of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources
This is § 601 of the National Security Act of 1947
Amended 4 times on record
Applied in 13 court decisions — leading case Alvarado v. KOB-TV, L.L.C. (2007)
Most recently applied in United States v. Sterling (July 2013)
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.
Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both.
Whoever, as a result of having authorized access to classified information, learns the identify of a covert agent and intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.
Whoever, in the course of a pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents and with reason to believe that such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States, discloses any information that identifies an individual as a covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such individual and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such individual's classified intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
A term of imprisonment imposed under this section shall be consecutive to any other sentence of imprisonment.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2010—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 111–259, §363(a)(1), substituted “15 years” for “ten years”.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 111–259, §363(a)(2), substituted “10 years” for “five years”.
1999—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 106–120, §304(b)(2)(A), substituted “shall be fined under title 18” for “shall be fined not more than $50,000”.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 106–120, §304(b)(2)(B), substituted “shall be fined under title 18” for “shall be fined not more than $25,000”.
Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 106–120, §304(b)(2)(C), substituted “shall be fined under title 18” for “shall be fined not more than $15,000”.
Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 106–120, §304(b)(1), added subsec. (d).
Short Title
For short title of this subchapter as the “Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982”, see section 1 of Pub. L. 97–200, set out as a Short Title of 1982 Amendment note under section 401 of this title.