---
kind: "section"
citation: "28 U.S.C. § 297"
title: "28"
title_heading: "Judiciary and Judicial Procedure"
number: "297"
heading: "Assignment of judges to courts of the freely associated compact states"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/28/297"
units:
  - "Part I — Organization of Courts"
  - "Chapter 13 — Assignment of Judges to Other Courts"
---

# §297. Assignment of judges to courts of the freely associated compact states

- (a) The Chief Justice or the [chief judge](/usc/28/351.md?p=c) of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit may assign any circuit, district, magistrate, or territorial [judge](/usc/28/351.md?p=d-1) of a court of the Ninth Circuit, with the consent of the [judge](/usc/28/351.md?p=d-1) so assigned, to serve temporarily as a [judge](/usc/28/351.md?p=d-1) of any duly constituted court of the freely associated compact states whenever an official duly authorized by the laws of the respective compact state requests such assignment and such assignment is necessary for the proper dispatch of the business of the respective court.
- (b) The Congress consents to the acceptance and retention by any [judge](/usc/28/351.md?p=d-1) so authorized of reimbursement from the countries referred to in [subsection (a)](#a) of all necessary travel expenses, including transportation, and of subsistence, or of a reasonable per diem allowance in lieu of subsistence. The [judge](/usc/28/351.md?p=d-1) shall report to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts any amount received pursuant to this subsection.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 100–702, title X, § 1022(1), Nov. 19, 1988, 102 Stat. 4672; amended Pub. L. 112–149, § 3, July 26, 2012, 126 Stat. 1145.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2012—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 112–149 substituted “circuit, district, magistrate, or territorial judge of a court” for “circuit or district judge”.