28 U.S.C. § 2250
Section 2250 · Indigent petitioner entitled to documents without cost
This is the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 46 court decisions — leading case Brown v. Allen (1953)
Most recently applied in 645 F. App'x 256 - United States v. Joseph Garrett (April 2016)
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.
If on any application for a writ of habeas corpus an order has been made permitting the petitioner to prosecute the application in forma pauperis, the clerk of any court of the United States shall furnish to the petitioner without cost certified copies of such documents or parts of the record on file in his office as may be required by order of the judge before whom the application is pending.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Derived from H.R. 4232, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session. It conforms to the prevailing practice.