I wasn't sure that deduction had not been placed on hiatus by TCJA, so I did a word search for "claim of right" on the Schedule A instructions and found it's still there, along with a reference to Pub 525.  Not that some IRS pubs don't have lengthy explanations of some itemized deductions with short warnings that they are not currently available. 

I grouped this blue-moon situation with the more familiar foreign tax credit, where it's always better to take the credit rather than the deduction.  Except when it isn't, and I don't want to clutter my mind with those details.  But I think with Section 1341, it mostly involves a comparison of the highest tax bracket in the year of receipt, and the highest tax bracket in the year of repayment.  Also, it's a no-brainer if the taxpayer is not itemizing.