A pro bono Troutman Pepper team, along with client Dominion Energy, helped a decorated U.S. Army veteran prevail in a nine-year legal battle to obtain educational benefits owed to him under the Post 9-11 GI Bill, a case that ended in the United States Supreme Court’s 7-2 ruling in Rudisill v. McDonough. The decision will allow approximately 1.7 million (and growing) Post-9/11 veterans to receive additional education benefits owed to them under the law.
James Rudisill’s pro bono team included Timothy McHugh, who led the case from the start as a first-year associate, Misha Tseytlin, Kevin LeRoy, Abbey Thornhill, Trey Smith, Sean Dutton, and Carson Cox, among others, as well as David DePippo from Dominion Energy.
Rudisill v. McDonough centered on the VA’s interpretation of certain administrative provisions of the Post-9/11 GI Bill that Congress enacted in 2008 to provide “enhanced educational benefits” far more generous than the then-prevailing peacetime Montgomery GI Bill. Congress passed the bill in recognition of the “especially arduous” wartime service required of veterans since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In the 7-2 Opinion the Court 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. Neither §3322(d) nor §3327 restrict veterans with two separate entitlements who simply seek to use either one. Thus, Rudisill may use his benefits, in any order, up to §3695’s 48-month aggregate-benefits cap. If the statute were ambiguous, the pro-veteran canon would favor Rudisill, but the statute is clear, so we resolve this case based on statutory text alone.”