Supreme Court Victory Would Support Millions
of Post-9/11-Era Veterans with Expanded Educational
Opportunities
RICHMOND, Va., March 13,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In their fight to secure full
educational benefits potentially worth billions of dollars for
about 1.7 million post-9/11-era veterans and counting, attorneys
from Troutman Pepper and Dominion
Energy today filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, asking the
Supreme Court to review the lower court ruling.
The case was brought by FBI Special Agent James R. Rudisill, a decorated U.S. Army
veteran, against the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) in 2015. It
seeks to resolve how many months of educational benefits a veteran
is entitled to under two different GI bills. Rudisill is
represented pro bono by Troutman
Pepper attorneys Timothy
McHugh, Misha Tseytlin,
Kevin LeRoy, Abbey Thornhill, and Trey Smith, among others, and David DePippo from Dominion Energy.
Based on nearly eight years of qualifying service, many of which
occurred on active duty in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rudisill separately is entitled
to educational benefits under both the Montgomery and Post-9/11 GI Bills. The VA
concedes as much. Despite that, in order to access the generous
Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, the VA required Rudisill to first
either exhaust or forfeit his remaining entitlement to Montgomery benefits, and limited his
entitlement to Post-9/11 benefits to just 10 months, instead of the
36 months the program provides. The VA concedes it has applied this
same forfeit-or-exhaust-first requirement to millions of
veterans.
Until a December 15, 2022, ruling
by an en banc panel of the United
States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversing
the ruling of a three-judge panel of the same court in July 2021, appeals courts agreed with Rudisill
that the VA's forfeit-or-exhaust-first requirement was contrary to
law when applied to long-serving veterans, like Rudisill, with
enough service to separately qualify for benefits under both the
Post-9/11 and Montgomery GI Bill programs.
"We are hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court will hear our case
because, as the dissenting judges pointed out in the December
ruling, the majority gave short shrift to the bulk of the statutory
and regulatory text that would be rendered moot or absurd based on
the majority's reading," McHugh said. "This violates the
pro-veteran canon of construction that the nation's highest court
has employed in practice since very soon after the Revolutionary
War to recognize that veterans' benefits legislation is meant to do
just that – benefit veterans and their survivors."
Under Rudisill's view, when the law is applied correctly, he
would be allowed to keep his earned Montgomery benefits, as well as obtain 36
months of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, and use those benefits as he
sees fit, subject to Congress's long-standing 48-month cap on the
usage of benefits under any combination of GI Bill programs. The
VA's forfeit-or-exhaust-first requirement does not benefit Rudisill
or any other long-serving veteran.
"I finished my service in 1999, and used the Montgomery GI Bill
to help pay for law school, to the tune of about $600 per month, in arrears. The rest of my
tuition, books, and living expenses were paid by loans, which took
me nearly 16 years to pay back. Today, the Montgomery benefits pay about $2,200 per month. In stark contrast, benefits
under the Post-9/11 GI Bill are equivalent to a full-scholarship to
college, with generous stipends for living expenses, books, and
fees. In short, these are life-changing benefits for
veterans—setting them up to begin their new, post-service chapters
successfully, and without the staggering student loan debt
impacting so many in this country," said DePippo, Assistant General
Counsel at Dominion Energy and a U.S. Coast Guard veteran. "The
Supreme Court granting certiorari and ruling in Jim's favor would
greatly and positively impact his and his family's lives, and it
would be transformative for millions of veterans, their families,
and their communities."
The petition for writ of certiorari highlights the
following:
- The Federal Circuit's en banc decision breaks Congress' core
promise in the GI Bills for post-9/11 era veterans by, for the
first time in our nation's history, depriving veterans with
multiple periods of qualifying service the full use of the 48
months of education benefits that they have earned. The result is
that veterans with multiple periods of qualifying service—including
veterans like Rudisill, who first served in peacetime before
September 11, 2001, and then
re-enlisted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to serve again in
wartime—cannot use the generous Post-9/11 Bill benefits that they
earned with their wartime service, unless they first agree to
suffer the penalty of giving up the right to a full 48 months of
benefits that veterans with multiple periods of service have
received for generations. The Federal Circuit never even attempted
to explain why Congress would have wanted to adopt such an
unprecedented, punitive regime, to the great detriment of our
nation's veterans.
- Under the Federal Circuit's decision, millions of veterans face
the same nonsensical penalty. The Department of Veterans Affairs'
own data shows that over 2.6 million post-9/11 veterans already
have exhausted or forfeited other GI Bill benefits to obtain
Post-9/11 benefits, and that number continues to rise as veterans
who enlist and re-enlist today continue to establish entitlement to
education benefits, including under the Post-9/11 GI Bill
program.
Case Highlights:
- Rudisill served three periods of active military service
between 2000 and 2011 and applied for education benefits under the
Montgomery GI Bill receiving 25 months and 14 days of the 36 months
of benefits available under that program.
- After his final stint in the Army, Rudisill applied for
education benefits under the Post- 9/11 GI Bill, which also
provides 36 month of benefits and has a 48-month combined limit of
benefits for veterans who have had multiple terms of service and
use benefits under multiple programs.
- The VA claimed Rudisill was only entitled to the remaining 10
months and 16 days of the time allotted by the Montgomery GI
Bill.
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims determined that
Rudisill isn't limited to the 36 months given by the Montgomery GI
Bill because he also qualifies for later benefits under the Post
9/11 Bill.
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Judges
Pauline Newman, Timothy B. Dyk, and Jimmie V. Reyna heard arguments in the case in
December 2020. The panel issued an
opinion affirming the U.S. Appeals Court for Veterans Claims'
decision in July 2021.
- The VA requested and was granted reconsideration before the
full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday, October 6, 2022. The court reversed the
ruling of the three-judge panel in December
2022.
About Troutman Pepper
Troutman Pepper is a national law
firm with more than 1,200 attorneys strategically located in 23
U.S. cities. The firm's litigation, transactional, and regulatory
practices advise a diverse client base, from startups to
multinational enterprises. The firm provides sophisticated legal
solutions to clients' most pressing business challenges, with depth
across industry sectors, including energy, financial services,
health sciences, insurance, and private equity, among others. Learn
more at troutman.com.
About Dominion Energy
About 7 million customers in 16 states energize their homes and
businesses with electricity or natural gas from Dominion Energy
(NYSE: D), headquartered in Richmond,
Va. The company is committed to safely providing reliable,
affordable and sustainable energy and to achieving Net Zero
emissions by 2050. Please visit DominionEnergy.com to learn
more.
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SOURCE Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP