{"id":15413,"date":"2026-04-28T10:20:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T10:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/?p=15413"},"modified":"2026-04-28T10:20:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T10:20:47","slug":"supreme-court-delivers-earth-shaking-7-2-decision-i-cant-believe-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/?p=15413","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Delivers Earth-Shaking 7-2 Decision\u2026 I Can\u2019t Believe It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"77\" data-end=\"230\">The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a major\u00a0<strong data-start=\"119\" data-end=\"156\">7\u20132 decision in Bufkin v. Collins<\/strong>, reshaping how veterans\u2019 disability claims are reviewed in federal court.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"232\" data-end=\"391\">The Court ruled that appellate judges are\u00a0<strong data-start=\"274\" data-end=\"319\">not required to independently re-evaluate<\/strong>\u00a0how the VA applies the \u201cbenefit-of-the-doubt\u201d rule in disability cases.<\/p>\n<h3 data-section-id=\"1x0atml\" data-start=\"393\" data-end=\"437\">What is the \u201cbenefit-of-the-doubt\u201d rule?<\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"438\" data-end=\"541\">It\u2019s a key VA standard that says if evidence is evenly balanced, the decision should favor the veteran.<\/p>\n<h3 data-section-id=\"175vdld\" data-start=\"543\" data-end=\"571\">What the ruling changes:<\/h3>\n<ul data-start=\"572\" data-end=\"762\">\n<li data-section-id=\"1yn65tk\" data-start=\"572\" data-end=\"623\">Courts will now defer more to the VA\u2019s judgment<\/li>\n<li data-section-id=\"1nhm7fj\" data-start=\"624\" data-end=\"701\">Appeals courts will only overturn decisions if there is a\u00a0<strong data-start=\"684\" data-end=\"699\">clear error<\/strong><\/li>\n<li data-section-id=\"slligq\" data-start=\"702\" data-end=\"762\">Stronger emphasis on evidence at the initial claim stage<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 data-section-id=\"1by8bg3\" data-start=\"764\" data-end=\"787\">Impact on veterans:<\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"788\" data-end=\"934\">Supporters say it clarifies the system and respects VA expertise. Critics warn it may make it harder for veterans to win close disability appeals.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-3\">\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1700471\" data-uid=\"005e2\">\n<div id=\"mgw1700471_005e2\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"mgbox\">\n<div class=\"mgheader\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a major\u00a07\u20132 decision in Bufkin v. Collins, reshaping how veterans\u2019 disability claims are reviewed in federal court. The Court <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/?p=15413\" title=\"Supreme Court Delivers Earth-Shaking 7-2 Decision\u2026 I Can\u2019t Believe It\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15415,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15413\/revisions\/15415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}