{"id":25632,"date":"2025-09-14T00:12:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T00:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=25632"},"modified":"2025-09-14T00:12:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T00:12:53","slug":"supreme-court-drops-earth-shaking-7-2-decision-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=25632","title":{"rendered":"SUPREME COURT DROPS EARTH-SHAKING 7-2 DECISION"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"95\" data-end=\"439\">In a 7\u20132 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in <em data-start=\"141\" data-end=\"160\">Bufkin v. Collins<\/em> that federal courts must now defer to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) unless a \u201cclear error\u201d is proven. This overturns the long-standing \u201cbenefit-of-the-doubt\u201d principle, which had allowed veterans to win claims when evidence for and against them was equally balanced.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"441\" data-end=\"767\">The case involved veterans Joshua Bufkin and Norman Thornton, both denied disability benefits for PTSD. They argued the previous rule should have applied, as their evidence was strong enough to meet that standard. The Court, however, raised the bar by requiring veterans to show overwhelming proof of VA mistakes to succeed.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"769\" data-end=\"1140\">The ruling limits judicial review, giving the VA more authority and narrowing courts\u2019 ability to overturn its decisions. Advocates warn this will make it harder for veterans to secure disability benefits, especially in complex cases where medical records are disputed. Two justices dissented, saying the decision weakens protections meant to honor veterans\u2019 sacrifices.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1142\" data-end=\"1422\">Looking forward, this decision is expected to reshape veterans\u2019 benefits litigation nationwide. Lawmakers and advocacy groups may push for legislative fixes to restore the benefit-of-the-doubt rule, but until then, veterans face a tougher path in proving service-related claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a 7\u20132 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Bufkin v. Collins that federal courts must now defer to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) unless a&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25632","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=25632\" \/>\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=\"In a 7\u20132 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Bufkin v. 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