---
type: "LegalText"
title: "15 U.S.C. § 242"
description: "Duty of United States attorney to enforce law"
jurisdiction: "us"
corpus: "united_states_code"
kind: "code_section"
title_number: 15
title_name: "COMMERCE AND TRADE"
chapter_number: "6"
chapter_name: "WEIGHTS AND MEASURES AND STANDARD TIME"
section: "242"
citation: "15 U.S.C. § 242"
status: "current"
release_point: "119-100"
release_date: "2026-06-26"
source: "official"
source_url: "https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc15@119-100.zip"
source_identifier: "/us/usc/t15/s242"
source_file: "data/legal/raw/us/code/title-15/usc15.xml"
source_hash: "360a0568b62fabc7e370a20ca1162c37aa2384b25811fcd3c8732f01200db2f6"
raw_snapshot_hash: "6982338d990ef19d6b52bff6825089bdd6d0ee1233d9382673faf533decd5059"
text_hash: "d26e30ee1f78a84920ab01be2bf33572c1610b262e29797b1eb938a4e1a148af"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-04"
confidence: "official"
tags: ["legal", "us-code"]
---

# 15 U.S.C. § 242 - Duty of United States attorney to enforce law

## Text

It shall be the duty of each United States attorney, to whom satisfactory evidence of any violation of sections 237 to 242 of this title is presented, to cause appropriate proceedings to be commenced and prosecuted in the United States court having jurisdiction of such offense.

(Aug. 23, 1916, ch. 396, § 6, 39 Stat. 531; June 25, 1948, ch. 646, § 1, 62 Stat. 909.)

## Notes

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name Act June 25, 1948, eff. Sept. 1, 1948, substituted “United States attorney” for “district attorney”. See section 541 of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure.