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October 12, 2010 - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is behind on disability benefits processing, which has been well known for some time now. Two veterans groups finally had enough and sued the VA in the hopes to make them move faster in processing disability claims.
Monday last week brought bad news for the veterans, however. The United States Supreme Court denied the veterans' request to hear their case. The Vietnam Veterans of America and the Veterans of Modern Warfare based their case on the length of time it takes a disability claim to be processed through the VA's system. Some of their allegations focused on the VA waiting over a year to reply to initial claims. Further, the two groups assert the VA's appeal process can take over 5 years and must negotiate a "Byzantine system of procedural hurdles."
Although greatly concerned about the vast number of veterans having their claims denied by the VA, this was not part of their suit. Instead, their suit focused entirely on the length of the disability claims process. The groups pointed out the issues veterans faced while waiting for the VA to process their claims in order to award compensation that for some is their only source of income:
The groups claim some of the above issues are directly related to the VA's failure to timely address and process their disability claims. The veterans were asking the Court to impose a strict deadline for processing claims on the VA. They wanted a 90 day response time for initial claims and no longer than 180 days to decide appeals.
Veterans have been ruled against by lower courts that felt proof of harm cannot be proven by demonstrating the average wait time for claims processing. The Supreme Court agreed with a lower court's ruling that held the veterans do not have standing to bring the suit in the first place.
Soldiers can return home with a number of conditions, injuries, and aggravated preexisting conditions. If you believe you have a service-connected physical or psychological injury you may be entitled to Veterans’ Disability Compensation.
At LaVan and Neidenberg, we are determined to secure veterans their rightful disability compensation and disability rating. We wrote this book for you! In it you will find valuable tips on how to navigate the claims process and avoid common pitfalls. Request your FREE copy today!
Or, complete our short contact form or call us directly at 1.888.234.5758 to schedule your FREE case evaluation.
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The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1987 STANLEY [3] “to harm” DOD, LSD experiment is approved by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1950 FERES [1] ‘can do no wrong, ends justify the means’ Doctrine. The STANLEY case is one of the U.S. Senate’s 1994 “During the last 50 years, hundreds of thousands of military personnel” were subjected to “experiments that were designed to harm”, e.g., the reported biological and chemical agents, radiation exposure, hallucinogenic and investigational drugs, experimental vaccines and behavior modification projects.[5] Yet convicted rapists and murderers are given protection from human experiments by the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights no cruel and unusual punishment. As implemented by, “Written policy and practice prohibit the use of” [prison] “inmates for medical.....experiments.”! See page 13 of 14, REF: [4]!! To-date the U.S. Congress has rejected the U.S. Senate 1994 Report Recommendation’s, “The Feres Doctrine should not be applied for military personnel who are harmed by inappropriate human experimentation when informed consent has not been given.”[5] The conducted known, certain injury trials were a dereliction of duty in direct disobedience of the Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary's 26 February 1953 NO non-consensual, human experiments.[2] During the U.S. Senate’s 1994 reported past 50 years, most of the "to harm" service records were destroyed in a 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire. Congress’s 1974 Privacy Act censored experiment verifying witnesses from any surviving records!
Overlooked by many in Congress is our “Pledge of Allegiance” “with liberty and justice for all" and the U.S. Supreme Court’s ignored own, carved in stone over its entrance, “EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW”! Please have your members in the U.S. Congress give back to service personnel and veterans those Constitutional Rights that convicted rapists and murderers keep!
With an ignored 66 years of corrective action, doesn’t the U.S. Senate’s reported Feres human guinea pig “EXPERIMENTS THAT WERE DESIGNED TO HARM” Doctrine continue?
REFERENCES:
[1] 1950 - Feres v. United States, 340 U.S. 135, 146 (1950). http://supreme.justia.com/us/340/135/case.html
[2] 1953 - DOD Secretary's 26 February 1953 NO non-consensual, human experiment’s Memo pages 343-345. George J. Annas and Michael A. Grodin, "The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code; Human Rights in Human Experimentation” (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
[3] 1987 - U.S. SUPREME COURT, JUNE 25, 1987, U.S. V. STANLEY , 107 S. CT.. 3054 (VOLUME 483 U.S., SECTION 669, PAGES 699 TO 710). http://supreme.justia.com/us/483/669/case.html
[4] 1994 - U.S. State Dept., "U.S. Report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights July 1994, Article 7 - Freedom from Torture, or Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.” Electronic Research Collections (ERC)
[5] 1994 - December 8, 1994 REPORT 103-97 "Is Military Research Hazardous to Veterans' Health? Lessons Spanning Half a Century." Hearings Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, 103rd Congress 2nd Session.
[6] 2005 & 2006 - "Veterans Right to Know Act" to establish the Veterans' Right to Know Commission was proposed in the 2005 and H.R. 4259 [109th] 2006 Congress. H. R. 4259.