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TITLE XI.

SEARCH WARRANTS.

SECTION 1. A search warrant authorized by this title may be issued by a judge of a United States district court, or by a judge of a State or Territorial court of record, or by a United States commissioner for the district wherein the property sought is located.

SEC. 2. A search warrant may be issued under this title upon either of the following grounds:

1. When the property was stolen or embezzled in violation of a law of the United States; in which case it may be taken on the warrant from any house or other place in which it is concealed, or from the possession of the person by whom it was stolen or embezzled, or from any person in whose possession it may be.

2. When the property was used as the means of committing a felony; in which case it may be taken on the warrant from any house or other place in which it is concealed, or from the possession of the person by whom it was used in the commission of the offense, or from any person in whose possession it may be.

3. When the property, or any paper, is possessed, controlled, or used in violation of section twenty-two of this title; in which case it may be taken on the warrant from the person violating said section, or from any person in whose possession it may be, or from any house or other place in which it is concealed.

SEC. 3. A search warrant can not be issued but upon probable cause, supported by affidavit, naming or describing the person and particularly describing the property and the place to be searched.

SEC. 4. The judge or commissioner must, before issuing the warrant, examine on oath the complainant and any witness he may produce, and require their affidavits or take their depositions in writing and cause them to be subscribed by the parties making them.

SEO. 5. The affidavits or depositions must set forth the facts tending to establish the grounds of the application or probable cause for believing that they exist.

SEC. 6. If the judge or commissioner is thereupon satisfied of the existence of the grounds of the application or that there is probable cause to believe their existence, he must issue a search warrant, signed by him with his name of office, to a civil officer of the United States duly authorized to enforce or assist in enforcing any law thereof, or to a person so duly authorized by the President of the United States, stating the particular grounds or probable cause for its issue and the names of the persons whose affidavits have been taken in support thereof, and commanding him forthwith to search the person or place named, for the property specified, and to bring it before the judge or commissioner.

SEC. 7. A search warrant may in all cases be served by any of the officers mentioned in its direction, but by no other person, except in aid of the officer on his requiring it, he being present and acting in its execution.

SEO. 8. The officer may break open any outer or inner door or window of a house, or any part of a house, or anything therein, to execute the warrant, if, after notice of his authority and purpose, he is refused admittance.

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SEC. 9. He may break open any outer or inner door or window of a house for the purpose of liberating a person who, having entered to aid him in the execution of the warrant, is detained therein, or when necessary for his own liberation.

SEC. 10. The judge or commissioner must insert a direction in the warrant that it be served in the daytime, unless the affidavits are positive that the property is on the person or in the place to bẹ searched, in which case he may insert a direction that it be served at any time of the day or night.

SEC. 11. A search warrant must be executed and returned to the judge or commissioner who issued it within ten days after its date; after the expiration of this time the warrant, unless executed, is void.

SEC. 12. When the officer takes property under the warrant, he must give a copy of the warrant together with a receipt for the property taken (specifying it in detail) to the person from whom it was taken by him, or in whose possession it was found; or, in the absence of any person, he must leave it in the place where he found the property.

SEC. 13. The officer must forthwith return the warrant to the judge or commissioner and deliver to him a written inventory of the property taken, made publicly or in the presence of the person from whose possession it was taken, and of the applicant for the warrant, if they are present, verified by the affidavit of the officer at the foot of the inventory and taken before the judge or commissioner at the time, to the following effect: "I, R. S., the officer by whom this warrant was executed, do swear that the above inventory contains a true and detailed account of all the property taken by me on the warrant."

SEC. 14. The judge or commissioner must thereupon, if required, deliver a copy of the inventory to the person from whose possession the property was taken and to the applicant for the warrant.

SEC. 15. If the grounds on which the warrant was issued be controverted, the judge or commissioner must proceed to take testimony in relation thereto, and the testimony of each witness must be reduced to writing and subscribed by each witness.

SEC. 16. If it appears that the property or paper taken is not the same as that described in the warrant or that there is no probable cause for believing the existence of the grounds on which the warrant was issued, the judge or commissioner must cause it to be restored to the person from whom it was taken; but if it appears that the property or paper taken is the same as that described in the warrant and that there is probable cause for believing the existence of the grounds on which the warrant was issued, then the judge or commissioner shall order the same retained in the custody of the person seizing it or to be otherwise disposed of according to law.

SEC. 17. The judge or commissioner must annex the affidavits, search warrant, return, inventory, and evidence, and if he has not power to inquire into the offense in respect to which the warrant was issued he must at once file the same, together with a copy of the record of his proceedings, with the clerk of the court having power to so inquire.

SEC. 18. Whoever shall knowingly and willfully obstruct, resist, or oppose any such officer or person in serving or attempting to

serve or execute any such search warrant, or shall assault, beat, or wound any such officer or person, knowing him to be an officer or person so authorized, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than two years.

SEC. 19. Sections one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and twenty-six of the Criminal Code of the United States shall apply to and embrace all persons making oath or affirmation or procuring the same under the provisions of this title, and such persons shall be subject to all the pains and penalties of said sections.

SEC. 20. A person who maliciously and without probable cause procures a search warrant to be issued and executed shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year.

SEO 21. An officer who in executing a search warrant willfully exceeds his authority, or exercises it with unnecessary severity, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year.

SEC. 22. Whoever, in aid of any foreign Government, shall knowingly and willfully have possession of or control over any property or papers designed or intended for use or which is used as the means of violating any penal statute, or any of the rights or obligations of the United States under any treaty or the law of nations, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

SEC. 23. Nothing contained in this title shall be held to repeal or impair any existing provisions of law regulating search and the issue of search warrants.

TITLE XII.

USE OF MAILS.

SECTION 1. Every letter, writing, circular, postal card, picture, print, engraving, photograph, newspaper, pamphlet, book, or other publication, matter or thing, of any kind, in violation of any of the provisions of this Act is hereby declared to be nonmailable matter and shall not be conveyed in the mails or delivered from any post office or by any letter carrier: Provided, That nothing in this Act shall be so construed as to authorize any person other than an employe of the Dead Letter Office, duly authorized thereto, or other person upon a search warrant authorized by law, to open any letter not addressed to himself

SEC. 2. Every letter, writing, circular, postal card, picture, print, engraving, photograph, newspaper, pamphlet, book, or other publication, matter or thing, of any kind, containing any matter advocating or urging treason, insurrection, or forcible resistance to any law of the United States, is hereby declared to be nonmailable.

SEC. 3. Whoever shall use or attempt to use the mails or Postal Service of the United States for the transmission of any matter declared by this title to be nonmailable, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. Any person violating any provision of this title may be tried and punished either in the district in which the unlawful matter or publication was mailed, or to which it was carried by mail for delivery according to the direction thereon, or in which it was caused to be delivered by mail to the person to whom it was addressed.

TITLE XIII.

GENERAL PROVISIONS.

SECTION 1. The term "United States" as used in this Act includes the Canal Zone and all territory and waters, continental or insular, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

SEO. 2. The several courts of first instance in the Philippine Islands and the district court of the Canal Zone shall have jurisdiction of offenses under this Act committed within their respective districts, and concurrent jurisdiction with the district courts of the United States of offenses under this Act committed upon the high seas, and of conspiracies to commit such offenses, as defined by section thirtyseven of the Act entitled "An Act to codify, revise, and amend the penal laws of the United States," approved March fourth, nineteen hundred and nine, and the provisions of said section, for the purpose of this Act, are hereby extended to the Philippine Islands, and to the Canal Zone. In such cases the district attorneys of the Philippine Islands and of the Canal Zone shall have the powers and perform the duties provided in this Act for United States attorneys.

SEO. 3. Offenses committed and penalties, forfeitures, or liabilities incurred prior to the taking effect hereof under any law embraced in or changed, modified, or repealed by any chapter of this Act may be prosecuted and punished, and suits and proceedings for causes arising or acts done or committed prior to the taking effect hereof may be commenced and prosecuted, in the same manner and with the same effect as if this Act had not been passed.

SEO. 4. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, or part of this Act shall for any reason be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered.

Approved, June 15, 1917.

[H. R. 6175.]

An Act Giving the United States Shipping Board power to suspend present provisions of law and permit vessels of foreign registry and foreign-built vessels admitted to American registry under the Act of August eighteenth, nineteen hundred and fourteen, to engage in the coastwise trade during the present war and for a period of one hundred and twenty days thereafter, except the coastwise trade with Alaska.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That during the present war with Germany and for a period of one hundred and twenty days thereafter the United States Shipping Board may, if in its judgment the interests of the United States require, suspend the present provisions of law and permit vessels of foreign registry, and foreignbuilt vessels admitted to American registry under the Act of August eighteenth, nineteen hundred and fourteen, to engage in the coastwise trade of the United States: Provided, That no such vessel shall engage in the coastwise trade except upon a permit issued by the United States Shipping Board, which permit shall limit or define the scope of the trade and the time of such employment: Provided further, That in issuing permits the board shall give preference to vessels of foreign registry owned, leased, or chartered by citizens of the United States or corporations thereof: And provided further, That the provisions of this Act shall not apply to the coastwise trade with Alaska or between Alaskan ports. Approved, October 6, 1917.

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