18 U.S.C. § 913
Section 913 · Impersonator making arrest or search
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 16 court decisions — leading case United States v. Josephson (1947)
Most recently applied in United States v. Harris (October 2009)
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 falsely represents himself to be an officer, agent, or employee of the United States, and in such assumed character arrests or detains any person or in any manner searches the person, buildings, or other property of any person, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, 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., §77a (Aug. 27, 1935, ch. 740, §201, 49 Stat. 877).
Words “shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor” were omitted. (See definitive section 1 of this title.) Words “and upon conviction thereof” preceding “shall be” were omitted as surplusage since punishment cannot be imposed until conviction is secured.
Maximum imprisonment provision was changed from 1 year to 3 years so as to be consistent with sections 911 and 912 of this title, the latter having also been changed to 3 years. There is no sound reason why a uniform punishment should not be prescribed for the offenses defined in these three sections.
Changes were made in phraseology.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $1,000”.