---
kind: "section"
citation: "15 U.S.C. § 242"
title: "15"
title_heading: "Commerce and Trade"
number: "242"
heading: "Duty of United States attorney to enforce law"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/15/242"
units:
  - "Chapter 6 — Weights and Measures and Standard Time"
  - "Subchapter VI — Standard Barrels"
---

# §242. Duty of United States attorney to enforce law


It shall be the duty of each United States attorney, to whom satisfactory evidence of any violation of sections [237](/usc/15/237.md) 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.


## Source credit

(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.