38 U.S.C. § 302
Section 302 · Seal
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Woodward v. United States (1948)
Most recently applied in Leroy S. Robinson, Jr. v. Robert A. McDonald (July 2016)
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 Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall cause a seal of office to be made for the Department of such device as the President shall approve. Judicial notice shall be taken of the seal.
(b) Copies of any public document, record, or paper belonging to or in the files of the Department, when authenticated by the seal and certified by the Secretary (or by an officer or employee of the Department to whom authority has been delegated in writing by the Secretary), shall be evidence equal with the original thereof.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Prior Provisions
Prior section 302 was renumbered section 1102 of this title.
Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in section 202 of this title prior to repeal by Pub. L. 102–83, §2(a).