{"id":16066,"date":"2025-10-07T17:40:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T17:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=16066"},"modified":"2025-10-07T17:40:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T17:40:57","slug":"supreme-court-rejects-broader-disability-review-for-veterans-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=16066","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Rejects Broader Disability Review For Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the Veterans Court does not have to re-examine all evidence when reviewing disability benefits denials. It can only overturn a decision if there is a clear mistake.<\/p>\n

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This standard was questioned by two veterans, Norman Thornton and Joshua Bufkin. Thornton, who served in the Gulf War, said that his PTSD disability rating should be higher. Doctors couldn\u2019t agree on whether Bufkin was eligible for PTSD benefits, so he wasn\u2019t given them.<\/p>\n

Their lawyers said the case could have an effect on a lot of veterans. Along with Neil Gorsuch, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the decision makes sure that the Veterans Court will keep giving in to the VA, even though Congress is trying to protect veterans.<\/p>\n

Veterans\u2019 groups supported the challenge, asserting that they have consistently received leniency when claiming disabilities. This was made clearer by Congress when it created the Veterans Court in 1988 and told it to follow this standard again in 2002.<\/p>\n

Veterans, on the other hand, said the court was too kind to the VA. The federal government said that the Veterans Court\u2019s job is to look over decisions for clear mistakes, not to look at the evidence again.<\/p>\n

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The court agreed with the VA that one doctor\u2019s opinion was stronger in Bufkin\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

After his wife said she would kill herself if he didn\u2019t leave the military, and the military allegedly told him to quit or get a divorce, Bufkin said he was traumatized.<\/p>\n

The VA decided that Thornton did not deserve a higher disability rating in his case. The government said that his case wasn\u2019t even close because there was enough evidence against him.<\/p>\n

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This is the second big ruling of the week for the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court\u00a0blocked President Trump<\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday from firing Democratic Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s highest court will allow Cook to remain in her seat until oral arguments begin in January 2026.<\/p>\n

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In late August, Trump fired Cook after a member of his staff said she had committed mortgage fraud by claiming two different properties as her main residence, which can lead to better credit conditions.<\/p>\n

Cook is facing mounting allegations of mortgage fraud after federal housing regulators issued criminal referrals over discrepancies in her property filings.<\/p>\n

CNN acknowledged the seriousness of the case Friday, with legal analyst Elie Honig saying the suspicious activity was \u201creally problematic\u201d for Cook, the Daily Caller\u00a0reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bill Pulte, the head of the U.S. Federal Housing Agency, confirmed that a second criminal referral has now been filed.<\/p>\n

He alleges Cook misrepresented a condominium in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when she claimed it was a \u201csecond home\u201d on a 2021 mortgage application, then listed it as an \u201cinvestment\/rental property\u201d on a government ethics form eight months later.<\/p>\n

According to Pulte, Cook\u2019s filings from 2022 through 2025 consistently described the Cambridge condo as an investment property, contradicting her original mortgage application.<\/p>\n

He further alleged that Cook falsely claimed her Atlanta condo as her primary residence while simultaneously claiming the same status for her Michigan home, and later designated her Ann Arbor residence as her home address while renting it out.<\/p>\n

Such discrepancies could have given Cook access to better loan terms. Lenders typically offer lower rates for second homes and primary residences than for investment properties, which carry higher down payments and interest rates because of higher perceived risk.<\/p>\n

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Cook acknowledged in court filings that documents were altered, but has suggested that clerical mistakes were to blame.<\/p>\n

Pulte maintains that Cook\u2019s conduct could amount to both mortgage fraud and occupancy fraud, with potential tax implications.<\/p>\n

Cook has filed a lawsuit challenging her removal after President Joe Biden appointed her to the Fed\u2019s Board of Governors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have obtained a document Lisa Cook submitted to the U.S. Government while serving as Federal Reserve Governor. In it, on February 28, 2023, she represents to the U.S. Government that the Atlanta property is her personal residence,\u201d Pulte stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, Lisa Cook, as a then-sitting Fed Governor and six months earlier, on September 1, 2022, appears to have listed that same property for rent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pulte argued that the timing of the two loans indicated Cook\u2019s lenders may not have been aware of each other\u2019s underwriting processes, a situation he described as consistent with occupancy fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the Veterans Court does not have to re-examine all evidence when reviewing disability benefits denials. It can only overturn a decision if there … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16068,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16066\/revisions\/16068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}