Title 50War and National DefenseRelease 119-73

§212 Confiscation of property employed to aid insurrection

Title 50 › Chapter CHAPTER 13— - INSURRECTION › § 212

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

If the President issues a proclamation saying an insurrection is blocking the laws and cannot be stopped by ordinary courts or marshals, any property that is bought, sold, given, or knowingly used to help that insurrection can be taken wherever it is found. The President must have that property seized, confiscated, and legally condemned.

Full Legal Text

Title 50, §212

War and National Defense — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Whenever during any insurrection against the Government of the United States, after the President shall have declared by proclamation that the laws of the United States are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the power vested in the marshals by law, any person, or his agent, attorney, or employee, purchases or acquires, sells or gives, any property of whatsoever kind or description, with intent to use or employ the same, or suffers the same to be used or employed in aiding, abetting, or promoting such insurrection or resistance to the laws, or any person engaged therein; or being the owner of any such property, knowingly uses or employs, or consents to such use or employment of the same, all such property shall be lawful subject of prize and capture wherever found; and it shall be the duty of the President to cause the same to be seized, confiscated, and condemned.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification R.S. § 5308 derived from act Aug. 6, 1861, ch. 60, § 1, 12 Stat. 319.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

50 U.S.C. § 212

Title 50War and National Defense

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73