                 TITLE 18--CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
 
                             PART I--CRIMES
 
                   CHAPTER 109--SEARCHES AND SEIZURES
 
Sec. 2236. Searches without warrant

    Whoever, being an officer, agent, or employee of the United States 
or any department or agency thereof, engaged in the enforcement of any 
law of the United States, searches any private dwelling used and 
occupied as such dwelling without a warrant directing such search, or 
maliciously and without reasonable cause searches any other building or 
property without a search warrant, shall be fined for a first offense 
not more than $1,000; and, for a subsequent offense, shall be fined 
under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
        This section shall not apply to any person--
            (a) serving a warrant of arrest; or
            (b) arresting or attempting to arrest a person committing or 
        attempting to commit an offense in his presence, or who has 
        committed or is suspected on reasonable grounds of having 
        committed a felony; or
            (c) making a search at the request or invitation or with the 
        consent of the occupant of the premises.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 803; Pub. L. 104-294, title VI, 
Sec. 601(a)(8), Oct. 11, 1996, 110 Stat. 3498.)


                      Historical and Revision Notes

    Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Sec. 53a (Aug. 27, 1935, ch. 
740, Sec. 201, 49 Stat. 877).
    Words ``or any department or agency thereof'' were inserted to avoid 
ambiguity as to scope of section. (See definitive section 6 of this 
title.)
    The exception in the case of an invitation or the consent of the 
occupant, was inserted to make the section complete and remove any doubt 
as to the application of this section to searches which have uniformly 
been upheld.
    Reference to misdemeanor was omitted in view of definitive section 1 
of this title. (See reviser's note under section 212 of this title.)
    Words ``upon conviction thereof shall be'' were omitted as 
surplusage, since punishment cannot be imposed until conviction is 
secured.
    Minor changes were made in phraseology.


                               Amendments

    1996--Pub. L. 104-294 substituted ``fined under this title'' for 
``fined not more than $1,000''.
