Harassment across state lines can be a federal crime. When someone uses the phone system, email, social media, or the mail to carry out a pattern of threatening or intimidating conduct against a person in another state, federal prosecutors can charge the case under statutes that carry up to five years in prison for a baseline offense and up to life if the victim dies.
When Harassment Crosses Into Federal Territory
Most harassment and stalking cases are handled by state courts. Federal law enters the picture when two things are true at once: the conduct is serious enough to meet a federal standard, and it reaches the victim across a state boundary or through an interstate communication tool.
The conduct has to be more than one rude message. The federal stalking statute requires a “course of conduct,” meaning a pattern directed at a specific person. Repeated threatening calls, a stream of intimidating texts or emails, or an ongoing campaign of menacing social media posts can qualify. A single angry voicemail usually will not.
The interstate element is met whenever the harasser uses what the law calls a facility of interstate commerce. That phrase covers almost every modern way of reaching someone: cell phone networks, the internet, email, social media platforms, and the U.S. Postal Service. Sending threatening messages from one state to a person in another through any of those channels satisfies the jurisdictional piece.
The Federal Statutes That Apply
Three statutes do most of the work in interstate harassment cases, and each targets different conduct.
Federal Stalking (18 U.S.C. § 2261A)
This is the main statute for interstate harassment and cyberstalking. It makes it a crime to use the mail or any interstate communication tool, with intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate, to engage in a course of conduct that either places a person in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury or causes substantial emotional distress. The protection extends beyond the victim to the victim’s spouse, intimate partner, immediate family, and even pets or service animals.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261A – Stalking
Interstate Threats (18 U.S.C. § 875)
This one can apply to a single communication. It criminalizes transmitting a threat to kidnap or injure someone through any interstate channel. A threat made to extort money or something of value carries up to 20 years. A threat to injure, without an extortion motive, carries up to five.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 875 – Interstate Communications The practical difference from the stalking law: § 875 does not require a pattern. One credible threat sent across state lines is enough. Prosecutors sometimes charge both when the facts allow.
Harassing Telephone Calls (47 U.S.C. § 223)
This statute targets phone-based harassment in interstate communications: anonymous calls made with intent to harass, repeated calls intended solely to harass a specific person, and causing someone’s phone to ring continuously to disturb them. The maximum penalty is two years in prison and a fine.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 USC 223 – Obscene or Harassing Telephone Calls
What Prosecutors Have to Prove
Federal harassment cases turn heavily on the defendant’s mental state, and the Supreme Court has drawn hard lines between punishable threats and speech the First Amendment protects.
For the stalking statute, the government must show the defendant intended to harass, intimidate, or injure the victim. For threats under § 875(c), it must show the defendant either intended the communication as a threat or knew it would be received as one. In Elonis v. United States (2015), the Supreme Court made clear that proving a reasonable person would find the words threatening is not enough on its own.
The 2023 decision in Counterman v. Colorado set the constitutional floor for every true-threats prosecution. The Court held that the government must prove the speaker “consciously disregarded a substantial risk that his communications would be viewed as threatening violence.”4Supreme Court of the United States. Counterman v. Colorado (2023) Recklessness is the minimum. The speaker does not need to have specifically intended to frighten the victim, but must have been aware that others could read the statements as threats of violence and sent them anyway.
This standard filters out political hyperbole, dark humor, and emotionally charged rhetoric that falls short of a genuine threat. It is also where many federal harassment prosecutions get contested, because defense attorneys often argue the speaker never crossed the awareness line.
Penalties
Federal stalking and cyberstalking under § 2261A are felonies, and the sentencing structure escalates with the harm caused. The tiers in 18 U.S.C. § 2261(b) run as follows:
- No physical injury: up to 5 years in prison.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261 – Interstate Domestic Violence
- Serious bodily injury or use of a dangerous weapon: up to 10 years.
- Permanent disfigurement or life-threatening injury: up to 20 years.
- Death of the victim: up to life imprisonment.
- Stalking in violation of a protective order: mandatory minimum of 1 year.
A conviction can also carry a fine of up to $250,000, the general federal maximum for felonies.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3571 – Sentence of Fine When the victim is under 18, the maximum prison term increases by five years beyond the standard tier.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261B – Enhanced Penalty for Stalkers of Children Beyond prison and fines, a conviction leaves a permanent federal record, and courts routinely attach no-contact conditions to sentencing or supervised release.
Restitution is mandatory, not discretionary. A judge cannot decline to order it because the defendant has no money or because the victim has insurance. It covers medical and mental health care, rehabilitation costs, lost wages, transportation and temporary housing, child care tied to the harassment, attorney’s fees from obtaining a civil protective order, and veterinary care for a pet or service animal harmed in the offense. Restitution is on top of any fine or prison sentence.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2264 – Restitution
Protective Orders Follow the Harasser Across State Lines
A protective order issued in one state is enforceable in every other state. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2265, any valid order must be recognized and enforced by every state, tribal jurisdiction, and U.S. territory. Law enforcement where you live is required to treat an out-of-state order as if their own court had issued it.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2265 – Full Faith and Credit Given to Protection Orders
For the order to qualify, the restrained person must have received notice and had an opportunity to be heard. Temporary emergency orders generally qualify as well, though enforcement can be slower in practice if police in the other state have not yet been notified.
A qualifying protective order also triggers a federal firearms restriction. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), a person subject to an order that restrains them from harassing or stalking an intimate partner or that partner’s child is prohibited from possessing any firearm or ammunition. The order must include either a finding of credible threat or explicit language prohibiting the use of physical force. Violating the firearms ban is a separate federal felony.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
How to Report It
Start with your local police department, even though the harasser is in another state. A local report creates the official record federal investigators will look for later. Give officers detail about the timeline, how often the contact happens, and what form it takes.
Preserve everything. Screenshot messages, emails, social media posts, and direct messages. Keep call logs, voicemails, and physical mail. Avoid deleting what the harasser sends, even when the content is disturbing. Gaps in documentation are the first thing a defense attorney will push on.
For cyberstalking and online harassment, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov accepts reports and acts as a central intake point. The IC3 encourages filing even if you are unsure whether the conduct qualifies as a federal offense.11Internet Crime Complaint Center. IC3 Home Page You can also submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov. Once local police or the FBI determines the conduct meets federal thresholds, the case can be referred to a U.S. Attorney.
If you are in immediate danger, call 911. Federal investigations take time. A local protective order can give you immediate protection while a federal case develops, and that order will be enforceable in the harasser’s state under the full faith and credit rule.