VA adds GI Bill benefits that could help more than 1 million veterans after Supreme Court ruling

More than 1 million U.S. military veterans could see their GI Bill education benefits greatly boosted under new rules that come in response to a decorated Army veteran’s victory in a case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government cheated him out of a year’s worth of college money.

As a result of the high court ruling last April, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says veterans who reenlisted, did at least two separate periods of military service and earned benefits under more than one version of the GI Bill will be able to get 48 months of college benefits for themselves or eligible family members, up from 36 months.

The changes apply to veterans nationwide like James Rudisill, the vet whose Supreme Court victory capped an eight-year court battle for the greater college benefits he said the VA wrongly denied him.

Rudisill, who’s now an FBI agent, is a Virginia resident whose pro bono team of lawyers included Chicago attorney Misha Tseytlin and former Army paratrooper Tim McHugh. Serving in the Army, Rudisill earned college benefits under both the Montgomery GI Bill, which covers tuition, and the newer, more generous Post-9/11 GI Bill, which pays for tuition, fees, housing and books.

Though federal law says veterans like Rudisill are entitled to tap both GI Bills for a maximum of 48 months of college payments, the VA told him he could get just 36 months covered. In a court fight that began in 2015, Rudisill successfully questioned the legality of the VA having shortchanged him because he’d initially tapped some of his Montgomery benefits before trying to use his Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits.

The change in policy announced by the VA in response to the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision Supreme Court ruling is retroactive.

The federal agency said it “will be distributing communications to potentially impacted beneficiaries” and that 1.04 million veterans potentially are eligible for additional benefits. Rudisiill’s lawyers put the number at 1.7 million.

Veterans whose GI Bill benefits already expired can apply for an extension of their expiration date but must do so by Oct. 1, 2030.

The VA is advising vets to wait to apply, though, until they are ready to use the extra benefits because the new expiration date will be based on the date of the application.

The VA has posted details online explaining how to apply for the additional benefits under the Rudisill decision at https://benefits.va.gov/GIBILL/rudisill.asp.

Rudisill had multiple periods of service before and after the Post-9/11 Bill took effect in 2009.

Unlike the Montgomery program — into which service members must pay to be able to get tuition money — Post-9/11 benefits are granted automatically and are more generous, covering tuition, fees, housing and books.

Rudisill’s military career saw him rise to the rank of captain while serving three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was wounded by suicide-bomb attacks and roadside bombs.

He then became an FBI agent but hoped to use his GI Bill benefits to attend Yale University’s divinity school so could return to the Army as a military chaplain.

But his plans fell through when the VA’s interpretation of the GI Bill rules shorted him 12 months of schooling payments.

He had used about 25 months of his Montgomery GI Bill benefits years earlier as an undergraduate. Thinking he had a 48-month maximum, he was counting on having almost two years of Post-9/11 benefits left to pay for the Yale program.

But the VA said that, if he wanted to switch to his more valuable Post-9/11 benefits, he could use them for only the number of months that were left on his Montgomery plan, converting those to Post-9/11 benefits. That would give him about 10 months of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits — not the 22 months he was expecting. As a result, he said he couldn’t afford the Yale program.

Rudisill’s legal fight to fix the way GI Bill benefits are calculated drew support from the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, U.S. senators and representatives and attorneys general from 39 states, including Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and the District of Columbia.