18 U.S.C. § 2513 — Confiscation of wire, oral, or electronic communication intercepting devices

Any electronic, mechanical, or other device may be seized by the government. This applies to a device used, sent, carried, made, assembled, possessed, sold, or advertised in violation of section 2511 or section 2512. The government can then forfeit that device. Forfeiture means permanently taking it away through a legal process. The customs laws in title 19 of the United States Code set out rules for seizing and forfeiting other property. That property includes vessels, vehicles, merchandise, and baggage taken for customs violations. This section says those same customs-law rules apply here too. They apply to seizures and forfeitures of illegal interception devices under this section. That is true as long as those rules fit, and do not conflict with this section. The customs rules that apply cover five things. First, seizing and forfeiting the property in court. Second, what happens to the property, or to money from selling it. Third, reducing or canceling a forfeiture. Fourth, settling claims. Fifth, paying rewards to people who report violations. Normally, a customs officer called a "collector of customs" carries out these duties for customs violations. But for interception devices under this section, things work differently. Those duties are instead carried out by whoever the Attorney General authorizes or designates for that job. This could be an officer, an agent, or another type of person.

The record. According to the source credit, this section was added by Public Law 90-351, title III, section 802, enacted June 19, 1968, and published at 82 Stat. 215. It was subsequently amended once, by Public Law 99-508, title I, section 101(c)(1)(A), enacted October 21, 1986, 100 Stat. 1851. The source credit thus indicates a single enactment followed by one later amendment. Historical context. Public Law 90-351 is the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, and Title III of that Act—commonly known as the Wiretap Act—is generally understood to have established the federal statutory framework governing the interception of wire and oral communications. This title is commonly cited as Congress's response to concerns in the 1960s about unregulated electronic surveillance by both government and private actors, and to constitutional developments regarding wiretapping and privacy. Within that framework, provisions authorizing seizure and forfeiture of intercepting devices, such as this section, are generally understood as an enforcement mechanism meant to reinforce the Act's prohibitions on illegal manufacture, sale, and use of such devices by allowing their confiscation. The 1986 amendment came via the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Public Law 99-508, which is commonly understood to have expanded Title III's coverage to electronic communications more broadly, reflecting technological change. The record here, however, does not establish the specific legislative reasoning behind this section's particular text or the precise content of the 1986 amendment to it.