---
kind: "section"
citation: "10 U.S.C. § 909a"
title: "10"
title_heading: "Armed Forces"
number: "909a"
heading: "Art. 109a. Mail matter: wrongful taking, opening, etc."
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/10/909a"
units:
  - "Subtitle A — General Military Law"
  - "Part II — Personnel"
  - "Chapter 47 — Uniform Code of Military Justice"
  - "Subchapter X — Punitive Articles"
---

# §909a. Art. 109a. Mail matter: wrongful taking, opening, etc.

- (a) **Taking.—** Any [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) subject to this chapter who, with the intent to obstruct the correspondence of, or to pry into the business or secrets of, any [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) or organization, wrongfully takes mail matter before the mail matter is delivered to or received by the addressee shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
- (b) **Opening, Secreting, Destroying, Stealing.—** Any [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) subject to this chapter who wrongfully opens, secretes, destroys, or steals mail matter before the mail matter is delivered to or received by the addressee shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 114–328, div. E, title LX, § 5421, Dec. 23, 2016, 130 Stat. 2946.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective on Jan. 1, 2019, as designated by the President, with implementing regulations and provisions relating to applicability to various situations, see section 5542 of Pub. L. 114–328 and Ex. Ord. No. 13825, set out as notes under section 801 of this title.