18 U.S.C. § 505
Section 505 · Seals of courts; signatures of judges or court officers
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 43 court decisions — leading case United States v. Goldberg (1995)
Most recently applied in Matter of Reich (June 2020)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whoever forges the signature of any judge, register, or other officer of any court of the United States, or of any Territory thereof, or forges or counterfeits the seal of any such court, or knowingly concurs in using any such forged or counterfeit signature or seal, for the purpose of authenticating any proceeding or document, or tenders in evidence any such proceeding or document with a false or counterfeit signature of any such judge, register, or other officer, or a false or counterfeit seal of the court, subscribed or attached thereto, knowing such signature or seal to be false or counterfeit, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §236 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §130, 35 Stat. 1112).
Mandatory punishment provision was rephrased in the alternative.
Minor changes of phraseology were made.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $5,000”.
Canal Zone
Applicability of section to Canal Zone, see section 14 of this title.
Cross References
Jurisdiction of offenses, see section 3241 of this title.