28 U.S.C. § 2111
Section 2111 · Harmless error
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 720 court decisions — leading case Chapman v. State of California (1967)
Most recently applied in Neimenggu Fufeng Biotechnologies Co. v. United States (January 2026)
Applied most in the Ninth Circuit Circuit (52 decisions)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 28 U.S.C. § 1291 · 21 U.S.C. § 841 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983
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.
On the hearing of any appeal or writ of certiorari in any case, the court shall give judgment after an examination of the record without regard to errors or defects which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
1949 Act
Incorporates in title 28, U.S.C., as section 2111 thereof, the harmless error provisions of section 269 of the Judicial Code (now repealed), which applied to all courts of the United States and to all cases therein and therefore was superseded only in part by the Federal Procedural Rules, which apply only to the United States district courts.
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
Harmless error, see rule 61, Appendix to this title.