41 U.S.C. § 321
Section 321 · Limitation on pleading contract provisions relating to finality; standards of review
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 429 court decisions — leading case United States v. Utah Construction & Mining Co. (1966)
Most recently applied in Sufi Network Services, Inc. v. United States (October 2016)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 28 U.S.C. § 1491 · 41 U.S.C. § 322 · 41 U.S.C. § 609
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment and consequential amendments — watch for a citation surge after a change. 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.
No provision of any contract entered into by the United States, relating to the finality or conclusiveness of any decision of the head of any department or agency or his duly authorized representative or board in a dispute involving a question arising under such contract, shall be pleaded in any suit now filed or to be filed as limiting judicial review of any such decision to cases where fraud by such official or his said representative or board is alleged: Provided, however, That any such decision shall be final and conclusive unless the same is fradulent 1 or capricious or arbitrary or so grossly erroneous as necessarily to imply bad faith, or is not supported by substantial evidence.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Agency Actions Generally, Judicial Review
Judicial review of agency actions generally, see section 701 et seq. of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.