Veterans For Common Sense may be heard by Supreme Court

Media Advisory: Judges to Decide if Supreme Court Hears Landmark Lawsuit
Contact: Veterans for Common Sense
(202) 491-6953 Date: January 3, 2013

In the next few days, the Supreme Court will determine if it will hear arguments in the case, Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki. An announcement could come as early as this Friday.

In one of the most important landmark legal cases involving veterans’ access to healthcare and disability benefits in decades, two veterans groups filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on September 5, 2012, asking the Court to hear the case. According to the Supreme Court's web site, our case was distributed for conference of January 4, 2013.

The lawsuit, filed in July 2007 by VCS and Veterans United for Truth (VUFT), centers on one key issue: whether the Veterans Judicial Review Act allows veterans to challenge in federal court the systemic delays in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) provision of mental health care and death and disability compensation.

Learn more about our VCS / VUFT lawsuit at our web site. The New York Times published several news articles about the veteran suicide crisis as well as the enormous disability claim backlog now at more than 1.1 million claims. and the paper also published an editorial supporting the plight of our veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Veterans for Common Sense also appeared on "60 Minutes" three years ago discussing the long waits veterans face when seeking VA assistance.

As a 501(c)(3) non-profit formed in the District of Columbia in August 2002, VCS leads the way on many key VA reforms. One major example is VA's new streamlined disability benefits for PTSD based on scientific research announced in July 2010.