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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 402. Contempts constituting crimes
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.
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