TITLE 18 > PART III > CHAPTER 301 > Sec. 4001.

Sec. 4001. - Limitation on detention; control of prisons

(a) No citizen shall be imprisoned or otherwise detained by the United States except pursuant to an Act of Congress.

Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 26, Notes of Advisory Committee on Rules, paragraph 2, in the middle:

"On the other hand since all Federal crimes are statutory [ see United States v. Hudson, 11 U.S. 32, 3 L.ed. 259 (1812)] and all criminal prosecutions in the Federal courts are based on acts of Congress, . . ." 

Rule 54(c) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, wherein is defined "Act of Congress." Rule 54(c) states: 

"Act of Congress" includes any act of Congress locally applicable to and in force in the District of Columbia, in Puerto Rico, in a territory or in an insular possession."

[for a listing of the above locations covered by "Acts of Congress", refer to Title 48 U.S.C.]

Lyeth v. Hoey, 305 US 188, 59 S. Ct 155 (1938):

"In dealing with the meaning and application of an act of Congress enacted in the exercise of its plenary power under the Constitution to tax income and to grant exemptions from that tax, it is the will of Congress which controls, and the expression of its will, in the absence of language evidencing a different purpose, should be interpreted 'so as to give a uniform application to a nation-wide scheme of taxation'. Burnet v. Harmel, 287 U.S. 103, 110 , 53 S.Ct. 74, 77. Congress establishes its own criteria and the state law may control only when the federal taxing act by express language or necessary implication makes its operation dependent upon state law. Burnet v. Harmel, supra. See Burk-Waggoner Oil Association v. Hopkins, 269 U.S. 110, 111 , 114 S., 46 S.Ct. 48, 49; Weiss v. Wiener, 279 U.S. 333 , 49 S.Ct. 337; Morrissey v. Commissioner, 296 U.S. 344, 356 , 56 S.Ct. 289, 294. Compare Crooks v. Harrelson, 282 U.S. 55, 59 , 51 S.Ct. 49, 50; Poe v. Seaborn, 282 U.S. 101, 109 , 110 S., 51 S.Ct. 58; Blair v. Commissioner, 300 U.S. 5, 9 , 10 S., 57 S.Ct. 330, 331."

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