18 U.S.C. § 210
Section 210 · Offer to procure appointive public office
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case United States v. Myers (1982)
Most recently applied in United States v. White (October 1998)
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 pays or offers or promises any money or thing of value, to any person, firm, or corporation in consideration of the use or promise to use any influence to procure any appointive office or place under the United States for any person, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on Title 18, U. S.C., 1940 ed., §§149 and 151 (Dec. 11, 1926, c. 3, §§1, 3, 44 Stat. 918).
Changes of style and substance were made in this section.
Term “or place” was inserted after words “appointive office” in order to give broader scope to the section and also to follow the phraseology used in similar provisions of section 202 of Title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., now section 216 [repealed] of this title. (See 46 Corpus Juris 924, where it is explained that the work “places” is used in a less technical sense than the word “offices”.)
The punishment provision, added at the end of this section and section 215 [now section 211] of this title to secure uniformity of style throughout this chapter, was originally enacted as a separate section, incorporating the other two by reference. 80th Congress House Report No. 304.
Prior Provisions
A prior section 210, act June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 693, related to acceptance of a bribe by a witness, prior to the general amendment of this chapter by Pub. L. 87–849 and is substantially covered in revised section 201.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $1,000”.
Canal Zone
Applicability of section to Canal Zone, see section 14 of this title.
Cross References
Minor offenses tried by United States magistrate judges as excluding offenses punishable under this section, see section 3401 of this title.