19 U.S.C. § 70 (2024)

This is the official text of 19 U.S.C. § 70 (2024), part of Federal (US Code)’s United States Code — the codified general and permanent federal statutes of the United States, organized into more than 50 numbered titles by subject.

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Obstruction of revenue officers by masters of vessels

Official statutory text

If the master of any vessel shall obstruct or hinder, or shall intentionally cause any obstruction or hindrance to any officer in lawfully going on board such vessel, for the purpose of carrying into effect any of the revenue or navigation laws of the United States, he shall for every such offense be liable to a penalty of not more than $2,000 nor less than $500.

(R.S. §3068; Aug. 5, 1935, ch. 438, title III, §307, 49 Stat. 528.)

Editorial Notes

Codification

R.S. §3068 derived from act Mar. 2, 1799, ch. 22, §71, 1 Stat. 678.

Amendments

1935—Act Aug. 5, 1935, inserted reference to navigation laws, and increased penalty from $500 and $50 to $2,000 and $500, respectively.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.