18 U.S.C. § 1702
Obstruction of correspondence
United States · Title 18 — CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE · Status: effective
Cite this
- Citation
- 18 U.S.C. § 1702, Obstruction of correspondence, United States, version 1 as recorded 2026-07-09, yourstate.us, https://yourstate.us/provision/449316
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Full text
Whoever takes any letter, postal card, or package out of any post office or any authorized depository for mail matter, or from any letter or mail carrier, or which has been in any post office or authorized depository, or in the custody of any letter or mail carrier, before it has been delivered to the person to whom it was directed, with design to obstruct the correspondence, or to pry into the business or secrets of another, or opens, secretes, embezzles, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Legislative history
The public laws that enacted or amended this section. Tallies are for the whole bill as it passed each chamber — often an omnibus covering far more than this provision — not a vote on this section alone. The law that originally enacted this section predates the public laws loaded here, so only later amendments are listed.
- Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994