28 U.S.C. § 2507
Section 2507 · Calls and discovery
Amended 4 times on record
Applied in 27 court decisions — leading case Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. v. United States (1958)
Most recently applied in 135 S. Ct. 1074 - Yates v. United States (February 2015)
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.
(a) The United States Court of Federal Claims may call upon any department or agency of the United States or upon any party for any information or papers, not privileged, for purposes of discovery or for use as evidence. The head of any department or agency may refuse to comply with a call issued pursuant to this subsection when, in his opinion, compliance will be injurious to the public interest.
(b) Without limitation on account of anything contained in subsection (a) of this section, the court may, in accordance with its rules, provide additional means for the discovery of any relevant facts, books, papers, documents or tangible things, not privileged.
(c) The Court of Federal Claims may use all recorded and printed reports made by the committees of the Senate or House of Representatives.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §272 (Mar. 3, 1911, ch. 231, §164, 36 Stat. 1140).
Words “or agency” were added. (See reviser's note under section 1345 of this title.)
Changes were made in phraseology.
Amendments
1992—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102–572, §902(a)(1), substituted “United States Court of Federal Claims” for “United States Claims Court”.
Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 102–572, §902(a)(2), substituted “Court of Federal Claims” for “Claims Court”.
1982—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 97–164, §139(f)(1), substituted “United States Claims Court” for “Court of Claims”.
Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 97–164, §139(f)(2), substituted “Claims Court” for “Court of Claims”.
1954—Act Sept. 3, 1954, substituted “Calls and discovery” for “Calls on departments for information” in section catchline, designated existing provisions as subsec. (a), and added subsecs. (b) and (c).
Effective Date of 1992 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 102–572 effective Oct. 29, 1992, see section 911 of Pub. L. 102–572, set out as a note under section 171 of this title.
Effective Date of 1982 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 97–164 effective Oct. 1, 1982, see section 402 of Pub. L. 97–164, set out as a note under section 171 of this title.