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Administrative Law Keyed to Funk
Kisor v. Wilkie
Citation:
139 S. Ct. 2400 (2019)Facts
James Kisor served as a Marine from 1962 through 1966 and saw combat in Vietnam. In 1982, he applied for disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The VA denied his claim after determining he did not suffer from PTSD. In 2006, Kisor sought to reopen his claim, presenting new evidence including a psychiatrist’s diagnosis of PTSD and additional service records documenting his combat experiences in Vietnam. The VA reopened his claim and granted him benefits effective from June 5, 2006, the date of his request to reopen. Kisor argued that under VA regulations, he was entitled to an earlier effective date tracing back to his original 1982 submission. The Board of Veterans’ Appeals denied this request, interpreting the term “relevant” in 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(c)(1) to mean that the newly submitted records must relate to the basis of the prior denial (the lack of a PTSD diagnosis), not just to his service generally. The Federal Circuit deferred to this interpretation under Auer, without determining which interpretation was better.
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