28 U.S.C. § 1731
Section 1731 · Handwriting
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 42 court decisions — leading case Strauss v. United States (1963)
Most recently applied in United States v. Bikundi (June 2019)
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 admitted or proved handwriting of any person shall be admissible, for purposes of comparison, to determine genuineness of other handwriting attributed to such person.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §638 (Feb. 26, 1913, ch. 79, 37 Stat. 683).
Words “as a basis for comparison by witnesses, or by the jury, court, or officer conducting such proceeding”, were omitted as superfluous.
Changes were made in phraseology.
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
Evidence, civil actions, see rule 43, Appendix to this title.
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
Criminal proceedings, see rule 26, Title 18, Appendix, Crimes and Criminal Procedure.