Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-234_2b8e.pdf
Page Number: 21

Cite as:  596 U. S. ____ (2022) 

3 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

George indeed suffered from schizophrenia before he joined 
the military, the agency denied his claim.  To make matters 
worse,  the  agency  even  faulted  Mr.  George  for  failing  to 
carry his supposed burden of “support[ing] a claim for ag-
gravation.”  App. to Pet. for Cert. 86a.

Eventually, virtually everyone came to agree that the ad-
ministrative regulations on which the VA relied in deciding 
Mr. George’s case defied the statutory terms Congress pre-
scribed  in  § 1111.    In  2003,  the  agency’s  General  Counsel 
admitted as much.  See VA Op. Gen. Counsel Precedent 3– 
2003, ¶¶ 3, 9.  The following year, the Federal Circuit held
that the statute “clear[ly]” forbade the VA’s rules.  Wagner 
v. Principi, 370 F. 3d 1089, 1094 (2004). 

After  the  Federal  Circuit’s  decision  in  Wagner,  Mr. 
George asked the agency to reconsider his case under the 
correct  standard  set  forth  in  § 1111.    Understandably  so. 
Congress has directed the VA to revise any prior adminis-
trative benefits decision infected with “clear and unmistak-
able error.”  38 U. S. C. §§ 5109A (regional office), 7111 (vet-
erans  board).  Congress  has  further  instructed  that 
veterans  may  petition  for  review  under  this  standard  “at
any time.”  §§ 5109A(d), 7111(d).  Yet, despite these direc-
tions,  the  agency  in  2016  refused  to  reopen  Mr.  George’s 
case.  To justify its decision, the agency reasoned that “ju-
dicial  decisions  that  offer  new  interpretations  of  the  law 
subsequent to a VA decision cannot be the basis of a” claim
for  clear  and  unmistakable  error  under  the  terms  of 
§§ 5109A and 7111.  App. to Pet. for Cert. 71a.  A divided 
panel of the Veterans Court, a non-Article III tribunal, af-
firmed.  See George v. Wilkie, 30 Vet. App. 364 (2019).  So 
did the Federal Circuit.  991 F. 3d 1227 (2021). 

II 
A 

I would reverse.  In § 1111, Congress provided veterans