Anti-Racketeering Act of 1934: 48 Stat. 979-980 (Chapter 569, Public, No. 376), 18 June 1934
"An Act To protect trade and commerce against interference by violence, threats, coercion, or intimidation", which made it a felony to obtain money or property in connection with trade or commerce by force, violence or coercion. The Hobbs Act of 1946 rewrote it.
- Date
- 1934-06-18
- Kind
- case-file
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Docket
- 48 Stat. 979-980 (73d Cong., 2d Sess., ch. 569; S. 2248; Public No. 376)
- Rights
- An Act of Congress, a federal work in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The text was read from the Library of Congress's digitised United States Statutes at Large; the page image stored here is the Library of Congress scan of that page.
Chapter 569 begins at the foot of page 979 of volume 48 and ends on page 980, “Approved, June 18, 1934.” Its printed title is “An Act To protect trade and commerce against interference by violence, threats, coercion, or intimidation”; the margin gives “[Public, No. 376.]”.
Section 2 makes it a felony for any person, in connection with or in relation to any act in any way affecting trade or commerce, to obtain or attempt to obtain, “by the use of or attempt to use or threat to use force, violence, or coercion, the payment of money or other valuable considerations, or the purchase or rental of property or protective services” (48 Stat. 980, sec. 2(a)), excluding wages paid by a bona fide employer to a bona fide employee. The penalty is imprisonment from one to ten years, a fine of $10,000, or both. A prosecution requires the express direction of the Attorney General, and a proviso bars construing the Act to impair the rights of bona fide labor organizations in lawfully carrying out their legitimate objects.
The name “Anti-Racketeering Act” is not printed in the text. The 1946 amending Act, filed here as the Hobbs Act, identifies this one by its printed title, approved June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 979). The FBI’s history timeline speaks of the May and June 1934 bills together and does not name this Act. The image stored here is page 979, where the chapter begins below Chapter 568.
