The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled in favor of an Army combat veteran who sued the Department of Veterans Affairs over his eligibility for education benefits under the Montgomery GI Bill and Post 9/11 GI Bill.
In a 7-2 decision, the court sided with James Rudisill, a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq who argued that he was eligible for up to 48 months of education benefits under the programs, which he had enrolled in while serving two separate stints in the Army.
In the opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said that a reading of the laws indicated that Rudisill was entitled to benefits under both programs and shouldn't have been limited to the time requirements of each individual program.
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“Rudisill earned two separate entitlements to educational benefits, one per the Montgomery GI Bill and the other per the Post-9/11 GI Bill, by serving in the military for nearly eight years over three separate periods,” Jackson wrote. “The bottom line is this: Veterans who separately accrue benefits under both the Montgomery and Post-9/11 GI Bills are entitled to both benefits.”
Rudisill served in the Army first as an enlisted soldier and later as an Army officer, using 25 of 36 months of his Montgomery GI Bill eligibility as a soldier to attend college, then returning to the Army and signing up for the Post-9/11 GI Bill,…
