Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has filed a case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, seeking to require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to comply with a Supreme Court decision regarding veterans’ education benefits. The case focuses on ensuring that the VA follows the ruling in Rudisill v McDonough, which established that veterans are entitled to full education benefits under both the Montgomery G.I. Bill and Post-9/11 G.I. Bills.
The lawsuit is joined by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and several individual veterans, including James Rudisill. Rudisill, a Virginia resident and decorated army veteran, was at the center of the Supreme Court case but has not yet received his full benefits.
“In 2023, Attorney General Miyares led two multistate coalitions urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear and affirm the claim for benefits brought by Rudisill—a Virginia resident and decorated army veteran. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mr. Rudisill, guaranteeing qualifying veterans a combined 48 months of education benefits.”
Despite this decision, officials say that “the VA has continued to take a cramped reading of the GI Bills, denying benefits to large swaths of qualified veterans.” One example cited involves a Virginia Army veteran who served nearly 24 years—including deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo—who was denied full G.I. Bill education benefits. This denial prevented him from transferring those benefits to his daughter for her law school tuition.
Attorney General Miyares led bipartisan coalitions in March and June 2025 supporting this veteran’s claim on behalf of all 50 states. Last month, according to officials, “the VA agreed in principle to restore the veteran’s individual benefit without extending this restoration to other veterans.”
Because these issues continue under current VA guidance affecting many other veterans nationwide, Virginia along with individual veterans and two national organizations have brought forward this new legal challenge.
