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CITE

    18 USC Sec. 402                                             01/05/2009

EXPCITE

    TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
    PART I - CRIMES
    CHAPTER 21 - CONTEMPTS

HEAD

    Sec. 402. Contempts constituting crimes

STATUTE

      Any person, corporation or association willfully disobeying any
    lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command of any
    district court of the United States or any court of the District of
    Columbia, by doing any act or thing therein, or thereby forbidden,
    if the act or thing so done be of such character as to constitute
    also a criminal offense under any statute of the United States or
    under the laws of any State in which the act was committed, shall
    be prosecuted for such contempt as provided in section 3691 of this
    title and shall be punished by a fine under this title or
    imprisonment, or both.
      Such fine shall be paid to the United States or to the
    complainant or other party injured by the act constituting the
    contempt, or may, where more than one is so damaged, be divided or
    apportioned among them as the court may direct, but in no case
    shall the fine to be paid to the United States exceed, in case the
    accused is a natural person, the sum of $1,000, nor shall such
    imprisonment exceed the term of six months.
      This section shall not be construed to relate to contempts
    committed in the presence of the court, or so near thereto as to
    obstruct the administration of justice, nor to contempts committed
    in disobedience of any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree,
    or command entered in any suit or action brought or prosecuted in
    the name of, or on behalf of, the United States, but the same, and
    all other cases of contempt not specifically embraced in this
    section may be punished in conformity to the prevailing usages at
    law.
      For purposes of this section, the term "State" includes a State
    of the United States, the District of Columbia, and any
    commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States.

SOURCE

    (June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 701; May 24, 1949, ch. 139, Sec.
    8(c), 63 Stat. 90; Pub. L. 101-647, title XII, Sec. 1205(c), Nov.
    29, 1990, 104 Stat. 4830; Pub. L. 103-322, title XXXIII, Secs.
    330011(f), 330016(2)(E), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2145, 2148.)

HISTORICAL AND REVISION NOTES

                                 1948 ACT
      Based on sections 386, 387, 389, and 390a of title 28, U.S.C.,
    1940 ed., Judicial Code and Judiciary (Oct. 15, 1914, ch. 323,
    Secs. 1, 21, 22, 24, 38 Stat. 730, 738, 739).
      Section 21 of the Clayton Act, section 386 of title 28, U.S.C.,
    1940 ed., Judicial Code and Judiciary, is here consolidated with
    parts of sections 1, 22, and 24 of the same act. Section 1 of said
    act, section 390a of title 28 U.S.C., 1940 ed., Judicial Code and
    Judiciary, defined person or persons. Section 22 of said act,
    section 387 of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Judicial Code and
    Judiciary, regulated the procedure and provided for the punishment
    of contempts. Section 24 of said act, section 389 of title 28,
    U.S.C., 1940 ed., Judicial Code and Judiciary, limited the
    application of these sections to certain kinds of contempt.
      In transferring these sections to this title and in consolidating
    them numerous changes of phraseology were necessary which do not,
    however, change their meaning or substance. Words "corporation or
    association" were inserted after "any person" in substitution for
    the definition provisions of section 390a of title 28, U.S.C., 1940
    ed., Judicial Code and Judiciary, which read as follows: "The word
    'person' or 'persons' wherever used in sections 381-383, 386-390a
    of this title, sections 12, 13, 14-19, 20, 21, 22-27 and 44 of
    title 15, and section 412 of title 18 shall be deemed to include
    corporations and associations existing under or authorized by the
    laws of either the United States, the laws of any of the
    Territories, the laws of any State, or the laws of any foreign
    country."
      The words "any person, corporation, or association," unqualified
    except by the context of the section mean all that the more lengthy
    definition included. Only those persons, corporations, and
    associations who were parties to the order or had actual notice of
    it may be punished for contempt. (See McCauly v. First Trust &
    Savings Bank, C.C.A. Ill. 1921, 276 F. 117. See, also National
    Labor Relations Board v. Blackstone Mfg. Co., C.C.A. 1941, 123 F.
    2d 633.) The fact that the contemnor was incorporated or organized
    under a foreign law or under the laws of a particular State or
    Territory would hardly be relevant to the issue of criminal
    contempt.
      As noted above these sections were part of the Clayton Act,
    entitled "An act to supplement existing laws against unlawful
    restraints and monopolies, and for other purposes." Whatever doubt
    might have existed as to whether the contempt provisions were
    variously limited to antitrust cases seems to be dispelled by the
    case of Sandefur v. Canoe Creek Coal Co. (C.C.A. Ky. 1923, 293 F.
    379, certified question answered 45 S. Ct. 18, 266 U.S. 42, 69 L.
    Ed. 162, 35 A.L.R. 451), where the court says: "The act, considered
    as a whole, covers several more or less distinct subjects. * * *
    The first eight sections pertain directly to the subject of trust
    and monopolies; section 9 concerns interstate commerce; section 10,
    combinations among common carriers; section 11, proceedings to
    enforce certain provisions of the act; sections 12-16, antitrust
    procedure and remedies; sections 17-19, regulations of injunction
    and restraining orders in all cases; section 20 limits the power of
    an equity court to issue any injunction in a certain class of
    cases, viz., between employer and the employee; and sections 21-24
    pertain to procedure in any district court, punishing contemptuous
    disregard of any order of such court, providing the act
    constituting contempt is also a criminal offense. Observing this
    relation of the various parts of the act to each other, we think
    'within the purview of this act' must refer to that portion of the
    act which most broadly covers the subject-matter to which section
    22 is devoted, and this portion is section 21, which reaches all
    cases where the act of contempt is also a criminal offense. We know
    of nothing in the legislative history of the act, or within the
    common knowledge as to the then existing situation, which justifies
    us in thinking that 'within the purview of this act,' in section
    22, meant to limit its effect to the employer-employee provisions
    of section 20, or even to the antitrust scope of some of the
    earlier sections." (See also Michaelson v. United States, 1924, 45
    S. Ct. 18, 166 U.S. 42, 69 L. Ed. 162, 35 A.L.R. 451, and H. Rept.
    No. 613, 62d Cong., 2d sess., to accompany H.R. 15657.)
                                 1949 ACT
      This amendment [see section 8] corrects the catchline of section
    402 of title 18, U.S.C., to better represent the section content.
                                AMENDMENTS
      1994 - Pub. L. 103-322, Sec. 330016(2)(E), substituted "punished
    by a fine under this title" for "punished by fine" in first par.
      Pub. L. 103-322, Sec. 330011(f), amended directory language of
    Pub. L. 101-647, Sec. 1205(c). See 1990 Amendment note below.
      1990 - Pub. L. 101-647, Sec. 1205(c), as amended by Pub. L. 103-
    322, Sec. 330011(f), added par. defining "State".
      1949 - Act May 24, 1949, substituted "Contempts constituting
    crimes" for "Criminal contempts" in section catchline.
                     EFFECTIVE DATE OF 1994 AMENDMENT
      Section 330011(f) of Pub. L. 103-322 provided that the amendment
    made by that section is effective as of the date on which section
    1205(c) of Pub. L. 101-647, which amended this section, took
    effect.