38 U.S.C. § 1901
Section 1901 · Definitions
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Parker v. Office of Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (2000)
Most recently applied in In re Marriage of Tronsrue (March 2024)
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.
For the purposes of this subchapter—
(1) The term “insurance” means National Service Life Insurance.
(2) The terms “widow” or “widower” mean a person who was the lawful spouse of the insured at the maturity of the insurance.
(3) The term “child” means a legitimate child, an adopted child, and, if designated as beneficiary by the insured, a stepchild or an illegitimate child.
(4) The terms “parent”, “father”, and “mother” mean a father, mother, father through adoption, mother through adoption, persons who have stood in loco parentis to a member of the military or naval forces at any time before entry into active service for a period of not less than one year, and a stepparent, if designated as beneficiary by the insured.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Prior Provisions
Prior section 1901 was renumbered section 3901 of this title.
Another prior section 1901, Pub. L. 85–857, Sept. 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1215, as amended by Pub. L. 90–77, title II, §204(a), Aug. 31, 1967, 81 Stat. 184, related to veterans eligible for assistance, prior to the general revision of chapter 39 of this title by Pub. L. 91–666. See sections 3901 and 3902 of this title.
Amendments
1991—Pub. L. 102–83 renumbered section 701 of this title as this section.