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Title 42 — The Public Health and Welfare

Chapter 21 — Civil Rights

§ 2000h. Criminal contempt proceedings: trial by jury, criminal practice, penalties, exceptions, intent; civil contempt proceedings

Statutory text

In any proceeding for criminal contempt arising under title II, III, IV, V, VI, or VII of this Act, the accused, upon demand therefor, shall be entitled to a trial by jury, which shall conform as near as may be to the practice in criminal cases. Upon conviction, the accused shall not be fined more than $1,000 or imprisoned for more than six months.

This section shall not apply to contempts committed in the presence of the court, or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice, nor to the misbehavior, misconduct, or disobedience of any officer of the court in respect to writs, orders, or process of the court. No person shall be convicted of criminal contempt hereunder unless the act or omission constituting such contempt shall have been intentional, as required in other cases of criminal contempt.

Nor shall anything herein be construed to deprive courts of their power, by civil contempt proceedings, without a jury, to secure compliance with or to prevent obstruction of, as distinguished from punishment for violations of, any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command of the court in accordance with the prevailing usages of law and equity, including the power of detention.

Legislative history

Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.

  1. Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Pub. L. 88–352 title XI § 1101 · 78 Stat. 241

    Enacted · 42 U.S.C. § 2000h

    (Pub. L. 88–352, title XI, § 1101, July 2, 1964, 78 Stat. 268.)

    Source evidence

    Code source credit
    (Pub. L. 88–352, title XI, § 1101, July 2, 1964, 78 Stat. 268.)

    Enacted provision · exact public law section
    Sec. 1101. In any proceeding for criminal contempt arising under title II, III, IV, V, VI, or VII of this Act, the accused, upon demand therefor, shall be entitled to a trial by jury, which shall conform as near as may be to the practice in criminal cases. Upon conviction, the accused shall not be fined more than $1,000 or imprisoned for more than six months. Exceptions. This section shall not apply to contempts committed in the presence of the court, or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice, nor to the misbehavior, misconduct, or disobedience of any officer of the court in respect to writs, orders, or process of the court. No person shall be convicted of criminal contempt hereunder unless the act or omission constituting such contempt shall have been intentional, as required in other cases of criminal contempt. Nor shall anything herein be construed to deprive courts of their power, by civil contempt proceedings, without a jury, to secure compliance with or to prevent obstruction of, as distinguished from punishment for violations of, any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command of the court in accordance with the prevailing usages of law and equity, including the power of detention.

1 of 1 references resolved to an enrolled provision

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Title II, III, IV, V, VI, or VII of this Act, referred to in text, mean title II, III, IV, V, VI, or VII of Pub. L. 88–352, , 78 Stat. 243. Titles II, III, and IV are classified generally to subchapters II (§ 2000a et seq.), III (§ 2000b et seq.), and IV (§ 2000c et seq.) of this chapter. Title V amended sections 1975a to 1975d of this title. Title VI enacted sections 2000d to 2000d–4 of this title. Title VII enacted sections 2000e to 2000e–15 of this title, amended sections 2204 and 2205 of former Title 5, Executive Departments and Government Officers and Employees, and enacted provisions set out as a note under section 2000e of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 2000a of this title and Tables.

Credits

(Pub. L. 88–352, title XI, § 1101, , 78 Stat. 268.)

Parsed from the official OLRC USLM XML in data/usc_all/usc42.xml · release point 119-108 · OLRC build 2026-09-09

USLM identifier /us/usc/t42/s2000h