---
kind: "section"
citation: "14 U.S.C. § 549"
title: "14"
title_heading: "Coast Guard"
number: "549"
heading: "Lighthouse and other sites; necessity and sufficiency of cession by State of jurisdiction"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/14/549"
units:
  - "Subtitle I — Establishment, Powers, Duties, and Administration"
  - "Chapter 5 — Functions and Powers"
  - "Subchapter III — Aids to Navigation"
---

# §549. Lighthouse and other sites; necessity and sufficiency of cession by State of jurisdiction

- (a) No lighthouse, beacon, public pier, or landmark, shall be built or erected on any site until cession of jurisdiction over the same has been made to the United States.
- (b) For the purposes of [subsection (a)](#a), a cession by a State of jurisdiction over a place selected as the site of a lighthouse, or other structure or work referred to in [subsection (a)](#a), shall be deemed sufficient if the cession contains a reservation that process issued under authority of such State may continue to be served within such place.
- (c) If no reservation of service described in [subsection (b)](#b) is contained in a cession, all process may be served and executed within the place ceded, in the same manner as if no cession had been made.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 116–283, div. G, title LVXXXV [LXXXV], § 8509(b), Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 4756.)