Federal judge orders VA to obey Supreme Court

[frigidmagi]

NBC

The Department of Veterans Affairs can no longer rely on its unique reading of federal law to refuse to provide full benefits to a California veteran in a same-sex marriage, a federal judge declared in a ruling filed late Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall of Los Angeles sided with Tracey Cooper-Harris of Pasadena, Calif., a 12-year Army veteran, who sued the VA for denying her full disability benefits because she is married to a woman.

The VA is the defendant in several lawsuits over its assertion that the Supreme Court's decision in June striking down the Defense of Marriage Act didn't apply to it.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki argued in a letter to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a member of the Armed Services Committee, that Title 38 of the federal code regulating veterans' benefits still defined a spouse as "a person of the opposite sex." Because that statute hadn't yet specifically been overturned, he wrote, the VA continues to recognize it.

"Should the ... spousal definitions be revised or determined to be unconstitutional, VA will be prepared to update its policies and systems in a timely manner," Shinseki wrote Aug. 14.

But Marshall found that the Supreme Court's June decision in Windsor v. U.S. made that section of the law unconstitutional "under rational basis scrutiny." Therefore, the VA can't deny benefits to same-sex partners as a matter of law, she wrote.

"The denial of benefits to spouses in same-sex marriages is not rationally related to any of these military purposes" in the statute, she wrote.

The order permanently enjoins the VA from relying on that law "to deny recognition of Plaintiffs' marriage by the state of California."

Cooper-Harris, who served in Iraq before her honorable discharge in 2003, married another woman in 2008. In her suit, she reported that even though she suffers from multiple sclerosis, she gets only $1,478 a month in VA disability — $124 less than for a married veteran.

The VA and Cooper-Harris didn't immediately return calls seeking comment early Friday. But Stephen Peters, president of the American Military Partner Association, said in an email message to NBC News that "Title 38 clearly violated the constitutional rights of our military veteran families."

"This decision sets our nation on a path to honoring and serving all of our veterans and their families, regardless of their sexual orientation," he said.

For the record I don't think the VA was motivated by malice here. Cowardice, laziness, a desire to cover their asses to the 9th degree, yes. But for malice you need a agenda beyond do as little as possible and complain how overworked you are.

I'll admit I'm being a little unfair to the many people in the VA who are laboring like slaves at this very moment, but frankly given my relationship with the VA has been one of frustration and rage... I don't feel like being fair.

[General Havoc]

I have to admit, I opened this story wondering what the Virginian government had done now...

[B4UTRUST]

I was 50/50 there Havoc. It was the mix of "Oh great, what did my state fuck up this time?" and "Oh great, how is my VA benefits going to get fucked up this time?"

I do, however, love the comment made that they're prepared to 'update their policies and systems in a timely manner.' HA! These people can't even process a change of address form in less than 16 months and that's after the YEAR it took for them to even acknowledge the received said form! I'm still waiting for them to correct this. And dear gods this is something as stupid and simple as a change of address form. Hell, I'm still waiting for them to finalize some other changes to my disability rating that's been on the books since February. At this point they owe me several thousand dollars in back pay that I doubt I'll see till next Christmas. My ex-wife is still trying to get the VA to figure out its shit on her case and she's in fairly desperate need of prescription medications for various issues she has and it's been over a year for her. There is literally a backlog of files numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The VA facility in North Carolina had to move their files because the sheer weight of all the files and filing cabinets for them was causing the floor to buckle.

Timely manner... The legalese could get rewritten today and all the policy changes approved tomorrow and it'd be years before the VA acknowledged the changes in her case file.

Sorry, bit of a rant there I realize. But as Frigid can assuredly attest, the VA is a subject that tends to inspire an emotional range between outright apathy at their complaints and blood pressure spiking rage. I mean these people got performance bonuses the last few years! Bonuses! For performance! With a backlog of cases in the hundreds of thousands! Bonuses! *twitch twitch, mouth froth*

[Josh]

All the horror stories I've heard makes me so glad that the local branch seems to have their shit together so much better than the national for the past few years.

(Definitely wasn't the case in the nineties when I had a bud going through all kinds of hell with his post-service disability issues.)

More recently, the boy was able to get his disability rating bumped up in a timely fashion and hasn't had near the problems that a lot of other people in other states seem to be having. I figured at the time that the nightmare shit with Reed had lit a fire under some asses to actually make the system work. Must just be the regional management instead.