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Thomas V. Seessel, MPA

JAMA. 1988;260(2):248.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

By the narrowest of margins in a complicated case, the US Supreme Court on April 20 upheld the Veterans Administration (VA) ruling that two recovering alcoholic Army veterans were not entitled to an extension of time in which to use their GI Bill education benefits. The Court explicitly did not decide whether alcoholism is a disease.¹

In this case, Eugene Traynor and James P. McKelvey had requested additional time beyond their ten-year entitlement for GI benefits. They were unable to complete college in the ten-year period because of their alcoholism. They were not seeking special benefits. Granting the extension would not have entailed any additional government expenditures beyond those that would have been spent within the ten-year entitlement.

The VA may grant an extension in cases where a disability prevents use of the benefits in ten years, provided the disability was not the result of "willful misconduct. "² The . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Former President National Council on Alcoholism New York

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