{"id":22998,"date":"2025-08-08T19:31:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T19:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=22998"},"modified":"2025-08-08T19:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T19:31:11","slug":"supreme-court-drops-earth-shaking-7-2-decision-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=22998","title":{"rendered":"SUPREME COURT DROPS EARTH-SHAKING 7-2 DECISION"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court, in a 7\u20132 ruling in #Bufkin v. Collins, said courts must defer to the VA\u2019s decisions unless there\u2019s a \u201cclear error,\u201d effectively narrowing how the long-standing \u201cbenefit-of-the-doubt\u201d rule can help veterans when evidence is evenly balanced.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The case involved two veterans, Joshua Bufkin and Norman Thornton. Bufkin was denied PTSD compensation amid conflicting medical opinions; Thornton sought a higher PTSD rating and lost. Under the new standard, the Veterans Court\u2019s review is limited to clear-error scrutiny of VA fact-finding.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch dissented, warning the decision tilts the system against veterans who already face steep proof hurdles for service-connected conditions.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Veterans\u2019 advocates say denials may rise and appeals will get tougher, and they\u2019re urging Congress to restore stronger protections for claimants. The ruling marks a significant shift in veterans\u2019 law that could discourage some from filing claims at all. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court, in a 7\u20132 ruling in #Bufkin v. Collins, said courts must defer to the VA\u2019s decisions unless there\u2019s a \u201cclear error,\u201d effectively narrowing how&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SUPREME COURT DROPS EARTH-SHAKING 7-2 DECISION -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=22998\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SUPREME COURT DROPS EARTH-SHAKING 7-2 DECISION -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Supreme Court, in a 7\u20132 ruling in #Bufkin v. 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