28 U.S.C. § 517
Section 517 · Interests of United States in pending suits
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 205 court decisions — leading case Republic of Austria v. Altmann (2004)
Most recently applied in John Doe v. Merrick Garland (July 2024)
Applied most in the District Circuit Circuit (48 decisions)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 28 U.S.C. § 1605 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 · 28 U.S.C. § 1350
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.
The Solicitor General, or any officer of the Department of Justice, may be sent by the Attorney General to any State or district in the United States to attend to the interests of the United States in a suit pending in a court of the United States, or in a court of a State, or to attend to any other interest of the United States.