Passed by Congress in 1914, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act was
designed to modify the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Companies
could no longer conclude exclusive sales agreements or have
interlocking directorates. Labor unions and farmer’s
cooperatives did not fall under this act. This piece of legislation
prevented the formation of new monopolies and allowed the
courts to disassemble existing trusts.
An Act To supplement existing laws against unlawful
restraints and monopolies, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled, That
“antitrust laws,” as used herein, includes the Act entitled “An
Act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful
restraints and monopolies,” approved July second, eighteen
hundred and ninety; sections seventy-three to seventy-seven,
inclusive, of an Act entitled “An Act to reduce taxation, to
provide revenue for the Government, and for other purposes,” of August twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and
ninety-four; an Act entitled “An Act to amend sections
seventy-three and seventy-six of the Act of August twentyseventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, entitled ‘An Act
to reduce taxation, to provided revenue for the Government,
and for other purposes,’” approved February twelfth, nineteen hundred and thirteen; and also this Act. “Commerce,” as
used herein, means trade or commerce among the several
States and with foreign nations, or between the District of
Columbia or any Territory of the United States and any State,
Territory, or foreign nation, or between any insular possessions or other places under the jurisdiction of the United
States, or between any such possessions or place and any State
or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia
or any foreign nation, or within the District of Columbia or
any Territory or any insular possession or other place under
the jurisdiction of the United States: Provided, That nothing
in this Act contained shall apply to the Philippine Islands.
The word “person” or “persons” whenever used in this Act
shall be deemed to include corporations and associations
existing under or authorized by the laws of either the United
States, the laws of any of the Territories, the laws of any State,
or the laws of any foreign country.
Sec. 2. That it shall be unlawful for any person engaged in
commerce, in the course of such commerce, either directly or
indirectly to discriminate in price between different purchasers of commodities, which commodities are sold for use,
consumption, or resale within the United States or any
Territory thereof or the District of Columbia or any insular
possession or other place under the jurisdiction of the United
States, where the effect of such discrimination may be to substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly in
any line of commerce: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall prevent discrimination in price between purchasers of commodities on account of differences in the
grade, quality, or quantity of the commodity sold, or that
makes only due allowance for difference in the cost of selling
or transportation, or discrimination in price in the same or
different communities made in good faith to meet competition: And provided further, That nothing herein contained
shall prevent persons engaged in selling goods, wares, or merchandise in commerce from selecting their own customers in
bona fide transactions and not in restraint of trade.
Sec. 3. That it shall be unlawful for any person engaged in
commerce, in the course of such commerce, to lease or make
a sale or contract for sale of goods, wares, or merchandise, machinery, supplies or other commodities, whether patented or
unpatented, for use, consumption or resale within the United
States or any Territory thereof or the District of Columbia or
any insular possession or other place under the jurisdiction of
the United States, or fix a price charged therefor, or discount
from, or rebate upon, such price, on the condition, agreement
or understanding that the lessee or purchaser thereof shall not
use or deal in the goods, wares, merchandise, machinery, supplies or other commodities of a competitor or competitors of
the lessor or seller, where the effect of such lease, sale, or contract for sale or such condition, agreement or understanding
may be to substantially lessen competition or tend to create a
monopoly in any line of commerce.
Sec. 4. That any person who shall be injured in his business
or property by reason of anything forbidden in the antitrust
laws may sue therefor in any district court of the United
States in the district in which the defendant resides or is
found or has an agent, without respect to the amount in controversy, and shall recover threefold the damages by him sustained, and the cost of suit, including a reasonable attorney’s
fee.
Sec. 5. That a final judgment or decree hereafter rendered
in any criminal prosecution or in any suit or proceeding in
equity brought by or on behalf of the United States under the
antitrust laws to the effect that a defendant has violated said
laws shall be prima facie evidence against such defendant in
any suit or proceeding brought by any other party against
such defendant under said laws as to all matters respecting
which said judgment or decree would be an estoppel as between the parties thereto: Provided, This section shall not
apply to consent judgments or decrees entered before any testimony has been taken: Provided further, This section shall
not apply to consent judgments or decrees rendered in criminal proceedings or suits in equity, now pending, in which the
taking of testimony has been commenced but has not been
concluded, provided such judgments or decrees are rendered
before any further testimony is taken.
Whenever any suit or proceeding in equity or criminal
prosecution is instituted by the United States to prevent,
restrain or punish violations of any of the antitrust laws, the
running of the statute of limitations in respect of each and
every private right of action arising under said laws and
based in whole or in part on any matter complained of in
said suit or proceeding shall be suspended during the pendency thereof.
Sec. 6. That the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce. Nothing contained in the antitrust
laws shall be construed to forbid the existence and operation
of labor, agricultural, or horticultural organizations, instituted for the purposes of mutual help, and not having capital
stock or conducted for profit, or to forbid or restrain individual members of such organizations from lawfully carrying
out the legitimate objects thereof; nor shall such organizations, or the members thereof, be held or construed to be illegal combinations or conspiracies in restraint of trade, under
the antitrust laws.
Sec. 7. That no corporation engaged in commerce shall
acquire, directly or indirectly, the whole or any part of the
stock or other share capital of another corporation engaged
also in commerce, where the effect of such acquisition may be
to substantially lessen competition between the corporation
whose stock is so acquired and the corporation making the
acquisition, or to restrain such commerce in any section or
community, or tend to create a monopoly of any line of commerce. No corporation shall acquire, directly or indirectly, the
whole or any part of the stock or other share capital of two or
more corporations engaged in commerce where the effect of
such acquisition, or the use of such stock by the voting or
granting of proxies or otherwise, may be to substantially
lessen competition between such corporations, or any of
them, whose stock or other share capital is so acquired, or to
restrain such commerce in any section or community, or tend
to create a monopoly of any line of commerce.
This section shall not apply to corporations purchasing
such stock solely for investment and not using the same by
voting or otherwise to bring about, or in attempting to bring
about, the substantial lessening of competition. Nor shall
anything contained in this section prevent a corporation
engaged in commerce from causing the formation of subsidiary corporations for the actual carrying on of their
immediate lawful business, or the natural and legitimate
branches or extensions thereof, or from owning and holding
all or a part of the stock of such subsidiary corporations,
when the effect of such formation is not to substantially
lessen competition.
Nor shall anything herein contained be construed to prohibit any common carrier subject to the laws to regulate commerce from aiding in the construction of branches or short
lines so located as to become feeders to the main line of the
company so aiding in such construction or from acquiring or
owning all or any part of the stock of such branch lines, nor
to prevent any such common carrier from acquiring and
owning all or any part of the stock of a branch or short line
constructed by an independent company where there is no
substantial competition between the company owning the
main line acquiring the property or an interest therein, nor to
prevent such common carrier from extending any of its lines
through the medium of the acquisition of stock or otherwise
of any other such common carrier where there is no substantial competition between the company extending its lines and
the company whose stock, property, or an interest therein is
so acquired.
Nothing contained in this section shall be held to affect or
impair any right heretofore legally acquired: Provided, That
nothing in this section shall be held or construed to authorize
or make lawful anything heretofore prohibited or made illegal
by the antitrust laws, nor to exempt any person from the penal
provisions thereof or the civil remedies therein provided.
Sec. 8. That from and after two years from the date of the
approval of this Act no person shall at the same time be a
director or other officer or employee of more than one bank,
banking association or trust company, organized or operating under the laws of the United States, either of which has
deposits, capital, surplus, and undivided profits aggregating
more than $5,000,000; and no private banker or person who
is a director in any bank or trust company, organized and
operating under the laws of a State, having deposits, capital,
surplus, and undivided profits aggregating more than
$5,000,000, shall be eligible to be a director in any bank or
banking association organized or operating under the laws
of the United States. The eligibility of a director, officer, or
employee under the foregoing provisions shall be determined by the average amount of deposits, capital, surplus,
and undivided profits as shown in the official statements of
such bank, banking association, or trust company filed as
provided by law during the fiscal year preceding the date set
for the annual election of directors, and when a director,
officer, or employee has been elected or selected in accordance with the provisions of this Act it shall be lawful for
him to continue as such for one year thereafter under said
election or employment.
No bank, banking association or trust company, organized
or operating under the laws of the United States, in any city
incorporated town or village of more than two hundred
thousand inhabitants, as shown by the last preceding decennial census of the United States, shall have as a director or
other officer or employee any private banker or any director
or other officer or employee of any other bank, banking association or trust company located in the same place: Provided,
That nothing in this section shall apply to mutual savings
banks not having a capital stock represented by shares:
Provided further, That a director or other officer or employee
of such bank, banking association, or trust company may be
a director or other officer or employee of not more than one
other bank or trust company organized under the laws of the
United States or any State where the entire capital stock is
owned by stockholders in the other: And provided further,
That nothing contained in this section shall forbid a director
of class A of a Federal reserve bank, as defined in the Federal
Reserve Act, from being an officer or director or both an officer and director in one member bank.
That from and after two years from the date of the
approval of this Act no person at the same time shall be a
director in any two or more corporations, any one of which
has capital, surplus, and undivided profits aggregating more
than $1,000,000, engaged in whole or in part in commerce,
other than banks, banking associations, trust companies and
common carriers subject to the Act to regulate commerce,
approved February fourth, eighteen hundred and eightyseven, if such corporations are or shall have been theretofore, by virtue of their business and location of operation,
competitors, so that the elimination of competition by
agreement between them would constitute a violation of any
of the provisions of any of the antitrust laws. The eligibility
of a director under the foregoing provision shall be determined by the aggregate amount of the capital, surplus, and
undivided profits, exclusive of dividends declared but not
paid to stockholders, at the end of the fiscal year of said corporation next preceding the election of directors, and when
a director has been elected in accordance with the provisions
of this Act it shall be lawful for him to continue as such for
one year thereafter.
When any person elected or chosen as a director or officer
or selected as an employee of any bank or other corporation
subject to the provisions of this Act is eligible at the time of
his election or selection to act for such bank or other corporation in such capacity his eligibility to act in such capacity
shall not be affected and he shall not become or be deemed
amenable to any of the provisions hereof by reason of any
change in the affairs of such bank or other corporation from
whatsoever cause, whether specifically excepted by any of the
provisions hereof or not, until the expiration of one year
from the date of his election or employment.
Sec. 9. Every president, director, officer or manager of any
firm, association or corporation engaged in commerce as a
common carrier, who embezzles, steals, abstracts or willfully
misapplies, or willfully permits to be misapplied, any of the
moneys, funds, credits, securities, property or assets of such
firm, association or corporation, arising or accruing from, or
used in, such commerce, in whole or in part, or willfully converts the same to his own use or to the use of another, shall
be deemed guilty of a felony and upon conviction shall be
fined not less than $500 or confined in the penitentiary not
less than one year nor more than ten years, or both, in the discretion of the court.
Prosecutions hereunder may be in the district court of the
United States for the district wherein the offense may have
been committed. That nothing in this section shall be held to
take away or impair the jurisdiction of the courts of the several States under the laws thereof; and a judgment of conviction or acquittal on the merits under the laws of any State
shall be a bar to any prosecution hereunder for the same act
or acts.
Sec. 10. That after two years from the approval of this Act
no common carrier engaged in commerce shall have any
dealings in securities, supplies or other articles of commerce,
or shall make or have any contracts for construction or maintenance of any kind, to the amount of more than $50,000, in
the aggregate, in any one year, with another corporation,
firm, partnership or association when the said common carrier shall have upon its board of directors or as its president,
manager or as its purchasing or selling officer, or agent in the
particular transaction, any person who is at the same time a
director, manager, or purchasing or selling officer of, or who
has any substantial interest in, such other corporation, firm,
partnership or association, unless and except such purchases
shall be made from, or such dealings shall be with, the bidder
whose bid is the most favorable to such common carrier, to
be ascertained by competitive bidding under regulations to
be prescribed by rule or otherwise by the Interstate
Commerce Commission. No bid shall be received unless the
name and address of the bidder or the names and addresses
of the officers, directors and general managers thereof, if the
bidder be a corporation, or of the members, if it be a partnership or firm, be given with the bid.
Any person who shall, directly or indirectly, do or attempt
to do anything to prevent anyone from bidding or shall do
any act to prevent free and fair competition among the bidders or those desiring to bid shall be punished as prescribed
in this section in the case of an officer or director. Every such
common carrier having such transactions or making any
such purchases shall within thirty days after making the same
file with the Interstate Commerce Commission a full and
detailed statement of the transaction showing the manner of
the competitive bidding, and the names and addresses of the
directors and officers of the corporations and the members of
the firm or partnership bidding; and whenever the said commission shall, after investigation or hearing, have reason to
believe that the law has been violated in and about the said
purchases and documents and its own view or findings
regarding the transaction to the Attorney General.
If any common carrier shall violate this section it shall be
fined not exceeding $25,000; and every such director, agent,
manager or officer thereof who shall have knowingly voted
for or directed the act constituting such violation or who
shall have aided or abetted in such violation shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined not exceeding
$5,000, or confined in jail not exceeding one year, or both, in
the discretion of the court.
Sec. 11. That the authority to enforce compliance with sections two, three, seven and eight of this Act by the persons
respectively subject to is hereby vested; in the Interstate
Commerce Commission where applicable to common carriers, in the Federal Reserve Boards where applicable to banks,
banking associations and trust companies, and in the Federal
Trade Commission where applicable to all other character of
commerce, to be exercised as follows:
Whenever the commission or board vested with jurisdiction thereof shall have reason to believe that any person is
violating or has violated any of the provisions of sections,
two, three, seven and eight of this Act, it shall issue and serve
upon such a complaint stating its charges in that respect, and
containing a notice of a hearing upon a day and place
therein fixed at least thirty days after the service of said complaint. The person so complained of shall have the right to
appear at the place and time so fixed and show cause why an
order should not be entered by the commission or board
requiring such person to cease and desist from the violation
of the law so charged in said complaint. Any person may
make application, and upon good cause shown may be
allowed by the commission or board, to intervene and
appear in said proceeding by counsel or in person. The testimony in any such proceeding shall be reduced to writing and
filed in the office of the commission or board. If upon such
hearing the commission or board, as the case may be, shall
be of the opinion that any of the provisions of said sections
have been or are being violated, it shall make a report in
writing in which it shall state its findings as to the facts, and
shall issue and cause to be served on such person an order
requiring such person to cease and desist from such violations, and divest itself of the stock held or rid itself of the
directors chosen contrary to the provisions of sections seven
and eight of this Act, if any there be, in the manner and
within the time fixed by said order. Until a transcript of the
record in such hearing shall have been filed in a circuit court
of appeals of the United States, as hereinafter provided, the
commission or board may at any time, upon such notice and
in any such manner as it shall deem proper, modify or set
aside, in whole or in part, any report or any order made or
issued by it under this section.
If such person fails or neglects to obey such order of the
commission or board while the same is in effect, the commission or board may apply to the circuit court of appeals of
the United States, within any circuit where the violation
complained of was or is being committed or where such person resides or carries on business, for the enforcement of its
order, and shall certify and file with its application a transcript of the entire record in the proceeding, including all the
testimony taken and the report and order of the commission
or board. Upon such filing of the application and transcript
the court shall cause notice thereof to be served upon such
person and thereupon shall have jurisdiction of the proceeding and of the question determined therein, and shall have
power to make and enter upon the pleadings, testimony, and
proceedings set forth in such transcript a decree affirming,
modifying, or setting aside the order of the commission or
board. The findings of the commission or board as to the
facts, if supported by testimony, shall be conclusive. If either
party shall apply to the court for leave to adduce additional
evidence, and shall show to the satisfaction of the court that
such additional evidence is material and that there were reasonable grounds for the failure to adduce such evidence in
the proceeding before the commission or board, the court
may order such additional evidence to be taken before the
commission or board and to be adduced upon the hearing in
such manner and upon such terms and conditions as to the
court may seem proper. The commission or board may
modify its findings as to the facts, or make new findings, by
reason of the additional evidence so taken, and it shall file
such modified or new findings, which, if supported by testimony, shall be conclusive, and its recommendation, if any,
for the modification or setting aside of its original order,
with the return of such additional evidence. The judgment
and decree of the court shall be final, except that the same
shall be subject to review by the Supreme Court upon certiorari as provided in section two hundred and forty of the
Judicial Code.
Any party required by such order of the commission or
board to cease and desist from a violation charge may obtain
a review of such order in said circuit court of appeals by filing in the court a written petition praying that the order of
the commission or board be set aside. A copy of such petition
shall be forthwith served upon the commission or board, and
thereupon the commission or board forthwith shall certify
and file in the court a transcript of the record as hereinbefore
provided. Upon the filing of the transcript the court shall
have the same jurisdiction to affirm, set aside, or modify the
order of the commission or board as in the case of an application by the commission or board for the enforcement of its
order, and the findings of the commission or board as to the
facts, if supported by testimony, shall in like manner be conclusive.
The jurisdiction of the circuit court of appeals of the
United States to enforce, set aside, or modify orders of the
commission or board shall be exclusive. Such proceedings in
the circuit court of appeals shall be given precedence over
other cases pending therein, and shall be in every way expedited. No order of the commission or board or the judgment
of the court to enforce the same shall in any wise relieve or
absolve any person from any liability under the antitrust Acts.
Complaints, orders, and other processes of the commission or board under this section may be served by anyone
duly authorized by the commission or board, either (a) by
delivering a copy thereof to the person to be served, or to a
member of the partnership to be served, or to the president,
secretary, or other executive officer or a director of the corporation to be served; or (b) by leaving a copy thereof at the
principal place of business of such person; or (c) by registering and mailing a copy thereof addressed to such person at
his principal office or place of business. The verified return by
the person so serving said complaint, order, or other process
setting forth the manner of said service shall be proof of the
same, and the return post-office receipt for said complaint,
order, or other process registered and mailed as aforesaid
shall be proof of the service of the same.
Sec. 12. That any suit, action, or proceeding under the
antitrust laws against a corporation may be brought not only
in the judicial district whereof it is an inhabitant, but also on
any district wherein it may be found or transacts business;
and all process in such cases may be served in the district of
which it is an inhabitant, or wherever it may be found.
Sec. 13. That in any suit, action, or proceeding brought by
or on behalf of the United States subpoenas for witnesses
who are required to attend a court of the United States in any
judicial district in any case, civil or criminal, arising under the
antitrust laws may run into any other district: Provided, That
in civil cases no writ of subpoena shall issue for witnesses living out of the district in which the court is held at a greater
distance than one hundred miles from the place of holding
the same without the permission of the trial court being first
had upon proper application and cause shown.
That whenever a corporation shall violate any of the penal
provisions of the antitrust laws, such violation shall be
deemed to be also that of the individual directors, officers, or
agents of such corporation who shall have authorized,
ordered, or done any of the acts constituting in whole or in
part such violation, and such violation shall be deemed a
misdemeanor, and upon conviction therefor of any such
director, officer, or agent he shall be punished by a fine of not
exceeding $5,000 or by imprisonment for not exceeding one
year, or by both, in the discretion of the court.
Sec. 15. That the several district courts of the United States
are hereby invested with jurisdiction to prevent and restrain
violations of this Act, and it shall be the duty of the several
district attorneys of the United States, in their respective districts, under the direction of the Attorney General, to institute proceedings in equity to prevent and restrain such
violations. Such proceedings may be by way of petition setting forth the case and praying that such violation shall be
enjoined or otherwise prohibited. When the parties complained of shall have been duly notified of such petition, the
court shall proceed, as soon as may be, to the hearing and
determination of the case; and pending such petition, and
before the final decree, the court may at any time make such
restraining order or prohibition as shall be deemed just in the
premises. Whenever it shall appear to the court before which
any such proceeding may be pending that the ends of justice
require that other parties should be brought before the court,
the court may cause them to be summoned, whether they
reside in the district in which the court is held or not, and
subpoenas to that end may be served in any district by the
marshal thereof.
Sec. 16. That any person, firm, corporation, or association
shall be entitled to sue for and have injunctive relief, in any
court of the United States having jurisdiction over the parties, against threatened loss or damage by a violation of the
antitrust laws, including sections two, three, seven and eight
of this Act, when and under the same conditions and principles as injunctive relief against threatened conduct that will
cause loss or damage is granted by courts of equity, under the
rules governing such proceedings, and upon the execution of
proper bond against damages for an injunction improvidently granted and a showing that the danger of irreparable
loss or damage is immediate, a preliminary injunction may
issue: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to entitle any person, firm, corporation, or association,
except the United States, to bring suit in equity for injunctive
relief against any common carrier subject to the provisions of
this Act to regulate commerce, approved February fourth,
eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, in respect of any matter
subject to the regulation, supervision, or other jurisdiction of
the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Sec. 17. That no preliminary injunction shall be issued
without notice to the opposite party. No temporary restraining order shall be granted without notice to the opposite
party unless it shall be clearly appear from specific facts
shown by affidavit or by the verified bill that immediate and
irreparable injury, loss, or damage will result to the applicant
before notice can be served and a hearing had therein. Every
such temporary restraining order shall be indorsed with the
date and hour of issuance, shall be forthwith filed in the
clerk’s office and entered of record, shall define the injury and
state why it is irreparable and why the order was granted
without notice, and shall by its terms expire within such time
after entry, not to exceed ten days, as the court or judge may
fix, unless within the time so fixed the order is extended for a
like period for good cause shown, and the reasons for such
extension shall be entered of record. In case a temporary
restraining order shall be granted without notice in the contingency specified, the matter of the issuance of a preliminary
injunction shall be set down for a hearing at the earliest possible time and shall take precedence of all matters except
older matters of the same character; and when the same
comes up for hearing the party obtaining the temporary
restraining order shall proceed with the application for a preliminary injunction, and if he does not do so the court shall
dissolve the temporary restraining order. Upon two days’
notice to the party obtaining such temporary restraining
order the opposite party may appear and move the dissolution or modification of the order, and in that event the court
or judge shall proceed to hear and determine the motion as
expeditiously as the ends of justice may require.
Section two hundred and sixty-three of an Act entitled “An
Act to codify, revise, and amend the laws relating to the judiciary,” approved March third, nineteen hundred and eleven,
is hereby repealed. Nothing in this section contained shall be
deemed to alter, repeal, or amend section two hundred and
sixty-six of an Act entitled “An Act to codify, revise, and
amend the laws relating to the judiciary,” approved March
third, nineteen hundred and eleven.
Sec. 18. That, except as otherwise provided in section 16 of
this Act, no restraining order or interlocutory order of injunction shall issue, except upon the giving of security by the
applicant in such sum as the court or judge may deem proper,
conditioned upon the payment of such costs and damages as
may be incurred or suffered by any party who may be found
to have been wrongfully enjoined or restrained thereby.
Sec. 19. That every order of jurisdiction or restraining
order shall set forth the reasons for the issuance of the same,
shall be specific in terms, and shall describe in reasonable
detail, and not by reference to the bill of complaint or other
document, the act or acts sought to be restrained, and shall be
binding only upon the parties to the suit, their officers,
agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, or those in active
concert or participating with them, and who shall, by personal service or otherwise, have received actual notice of the
same.
Sec. 20. That no restraining order or injunction shall be
granted by any court of the United States, or a judge or the
judges thereof, in any case between an employer and employees, or between employers and employees, or between
employees, or between persons employed and persons seeking employment, involving, or growing out of, a dispute concerning terms or conditions of employment, unless necessary
to prevent irreparable injury to property, or to a property
right, of the party making the application, for which injury
there is no adequate remedy at law, and such property or
property right must be described with particularity in the
application, which must be in writing and sworn to by the
applicant or by his agent or attorney.
And no such restraining order or conjunction shall prohibit any person or persons, whether singly or in concert,
from terminating any relation of employment, or from ceasing to perform any work or labor, or from recommending,
advising, or persuading others by peaceful means so to do; or
from attending at any place where any such person or persons
may lawfully be, for the purpose of peacefully obtaining or
communicating information, or from peacefully persuading
any person to work or to abstain from working; or from ceasing to patronize or to employ any party to such dispute, or
from recommending, advising, or persuading others by
peaceful and lawful means to do so; or from paying or giving
to, or withholding from, any person engaged in such dispute,
any strike benefits or other moneys or things of value; or
from peaceably assembling in a lawful manner, and for lawful purposes; or for doing any act or thing which might lawfully be done in the absence of such dispute by any party
thereto; nor shall any of the acts specified in this paragraph
be considered or held to be violations of any law of the
United States.
Sec. 21. That any person who shall willfully disobey 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 to be done by him, if the act or thing so done by him
be of such character as to constitute 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 proceeded against
for his said contempt as hereinafter provided.
Sec. 22. That whenever it shall be made to appear to any
district court or judge thereof, or to any judge therein sitting,
by the return of a proper officer on lawful process, or upon
the affidavit of some credible person, or by information filed
by any district attorney, that there is reasonable ground to
believe that any person has been guilty of such contempt, the
court or judge thereof, or any judge therein sitting, may issue
a rule requiring the said person so charged to show cause
upon a day certain why he should not be punished therefor,
which rule, together with a copy of the affidavit or information, shall be served upon the person charged, with sufficient
promptness to enable him to prepare for and make return to
the order at the time fixed therein. If upon or by such return,
in the judgment of the court, the alleged contempt be not
sufficiently purged, a trial shall be directed at a time and place
fixed by the court: Provided, however, That if the accused,
being a natural person, fail or refuse to make return to the
rule to show cause, an attachment may issue against his person to compel an answer, and in case of his continued failure
or refusal, or if for any reason it be impracticable to dispose
of the matter on the return day, he may be required to give
reasonable bail for his attendance at the trial and his submission to the final judgment of the court. Where the accused is
a body corporate, an attachment for the sequestration of its
property may be issued upon like refusal or failure to answer.
In all cases within the purview of this Act such trial may be
by the court, or, upon demand of the accused, by a jury; in
which latter event the court may impanel a jury from the
jurors then in attendance, or the court or the judge thereof in
chambers may cause a sufficient number of jurors to be
selected and summoned, as provided by law, to attend at the
time and place of trial, at which time a jury shall be selected
and impaneled as upon a trial for misdemeanor; and such
trial shall conform, as near as may be, to the practice in criminal cases prosecuted by indictment or upon information.
If the accused be found guilty, judgment shall be entered
accordingly, prescribing the punishment, either by fine or
imprisonment, or both, in the discretion of the court. 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:
Provided, That in any case the court or a judge thereof may,
for good cause shown, by affidavit or proof taken in open
court or before such judge and filed with the papers in the
case, dispense with the rule to show cause, and may issue an
attachment for the arrest of the person charged with contempt; in which event such person, when arrested, shall be
brought before such court or a judge thereof without unnecessary delay and shall be admitted to bail in a reasonable
penalty for his appearance to answer to the charge or for trial
for the contempt; and thereafter the proceedings shall be the
same as provided herein in case the rule had issued in the first
instance.
Sec. 23. That the evidence taken upon the trial of any persons so accused may be preserved by bill of exceptions, and
any judgment of conviction may be reviewed upon writ of
error in all respects as now provided by law in criminal cases,
and may be affirmed, reversed, or modified as justice may
require. Upon the granting of such writ of error, execution of
judgment shall be stayed, and the accused, if thereby
sentenced to imprisonment, shall be admitted to bail in such
reasonable sum as may be required by the court, or by any
justice, or any judge of any district court of the United States
or any court of the district of Columbia.
Sec. 24. That nothing herein contained shall 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 within section
twenty-one of this Act, may be punished in conformity to the
usages at law and in equity now prevailing.
Sec. 25. That no proceeding for contempt shall be instituted against any person unless begun within one year from
the date of the act complained of; nor shall any such proceeding be a bar to any criminal prosecution for the same act or
acts; but nothing herein contained shall affect any proceedings
in contempt pending at the time of the passage of this Act.
Sec. 26. 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 said
judgment shall have been rendered.
Approved, October 15, 1914.