Download - Veterans for Common Sense v Shinseki
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8/10/2019 Veterans for Common Sense v Shinseki
1/23
ODONNELL KEVIN5/25/2012
For Educational Use Only
Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki, --- F.3d ---- (2012)
12 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4940, 2012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 5907
2012 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 1
Synopsis
Background: Non-profit veterans organizations brought
action against Department of Veterans Affairs (VA),
seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging that
manner in which VA provided mental health care and
procedure for obtaining medical benefits violated statutory
and constitutional rights. The United States District Court
for the Northern District of California, Samuel Conti, J.,
563 F.Supp.2d 1049, entered judgment in favor of VA.
Organizations appealed. A panel of plaintiff United States
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 644 F.3d 845,reversed
on the constitutional claims, but affirmed the district court's
conclusion that the VA's procedures at its Regional Offices
satisfied due process.
Holdings:After granting the VA's petition for rehearing en
banc, 663 F.3d 1033, the Court of Appeals, Bybee, Circuit
Judge, held that:
[1] district court lacked jurisdiction to consider veterans
organization's various claims for relief related to VA's
provision of mental health care, and adjudication of service-
related disability benefits;
[2] district court had jurisdiction to consider due processchallenge to existing VA procedures for adjudicating claims
for service-related disability benefits; and
[3]nonadversarial procedures at VA Regional Office level
for adjudicating veterans' disability claims were sufficient to
satisfy due process.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with
instructions.
Schroeder, Senior Circuit Judge, filed dissenting opinion.
West Headnotes (9)
[1] Federal Courts
Limited Jurisdiction; Dependent on
Constitution or Statutes
Article III is not self-executing, so the jurisdiction
of inferior federal courts depends on an
affirmative statutory grant. U.S.C.A. Const. Art.
3, 1et seq.
[2] Federal Courts
Limited Jurisdiction; Dependent on
Constitution or Statutes
Congress is under no obligation to confer
jurisdiction upon inferior federal courts equally.
U.S.C.A. Const. Art. 3, 1et seq.
[3] Armed Services
Jurisdiction
In general, review of decisions made in
the context of individual veteran's benefits
proceedings are beyond the jurisdiction of federal
courts outside the review scheme established by
Veterans' Judicial Review Act (VJRA), even if
the veteran dresses his claim as a constitutional
challenge, and even where the veteran has
challenged some other wrongful conduct that,
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8/10/2019 Veterans for Common Sense v Shinseki
2/23
ODONNELL KEVIN5/25/2012
For Educational Use Only
Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki, --- F.3d ---- (2012)
12 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4940, 2012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 5907
2012 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 2
although unrelated to Department of Veterans
Affairs' (VA) ultimate decision on his claim,
affected his or her benefits proceeding. 38
U.S.C.A. 511.
[4] Armed Services
Jurisdiction
Veterans' Judicial Review Act (VJRA) precludes
jurisdiction over a claim if it requires the district
court to review Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) decisions that relate to benefits decisions,
including any decision made by the Secretary
in the course of making benefits determinations;
such preclusion extends not only to cases where
adjudicating veterans' claims requires the district
court to determine whether the VA acted properly
in handling a veteran's request for benefits, but
also to those decisions that may affect such cases,
and if that test is met, district court must cede
any claim to jurisdiction over the case, and parties
must seek a forum in the Veterans Court and the
Federal Circuit. 38 U.S.C.A. 511.
[5] Armed Services
Jurisdiction
District court lacked jurisdiction to consider
veterans organization's various claims for
relief related to the Department of Veterans
Affairs' (VA) provision of mental health care,
including its challenge to the lack of procedures
by which veterans could appeal the VA's
administrative scheduling decisions; there was
no way for the district court to resolve
whether the VA acted ina timely and effective
manner in regard to the provision of mental
health care without evaluating the circumstances
of individual veterans and their requests for
treatment, and determining whether the VA
handled those requests properly. 38 U.S.C.A.
511.
[6] Armed Services
Jurisdiction
District court lacked jurisdiction to
consider veterans organization's various claims
challenging delays in Department of Veterans
Affairs' (VA) adjudication of service-relateddisability benefit claims; challenge implicated
questions of law and fact regarding the
appropriate method of providing benefits to
individual veterans, and thus, district court could
not decide such claims without determining
whether the VA acted properly in handling
individual veterans' benefits requests at each
point in the process. 38 U.S.C.A. 511.
[7] Armed Services
Jurisdiction
Veterans' Judicial Review Act (VJRA) did not bar
district court's jurisdiction to consider due process
challenge to existing Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) procedures when veterans filed
their claims for service-related disability benefits
at VA Regional Offices; reviewing the VA's
procedures for filing and handling benefits claims
at the Regional Offices did not require court
to review decisions affecting the provision
of benefits to any individual claimants, and
exercise of jurisdiction was not precluded by
provisions conferring exclusive jurisdiction on
the Veterans Court and the Federal Circuit.
U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 5; 38 U.S.C.A. 511,
7252, 7261, 7292.
[8] Armed Services
Claims Procedures in General
Constitutional Law
Pay and Benefits
Nonadversarial procedures at Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office level
for adjudicating veterans' disability claims were
sufficient to satisfy due process; subpoena
power, discovery, pre-decision hearings, and the
presence of paid attorneys would transform the
VA's system of benefits administration into an
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8/10/2019 Veterans for Common Sense v Shinseki
3/23
ODONNELL KEVIN5/25/2012
For Educational Use Only
Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki, --- F.3d ---- (2012)
12 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4940, 2012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 5907
2012 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 3
adversarial system that would tend to reflect
the rigorous system of civil litigation that
Congress plainly intended to preclude. U.S.C.A.
Const.Amend. 5.
[9] Constitutional Law
Factors Considered; Flexibility and
Balancing
In evaluating whether a procedure satisfies due
process, courts balance (1) the private interest; (2)
the risk of erroneous deprivation and the likely
value, if any, of extra safeguards; and (3) the
government's interest, especially in avoiding the
burden any additional safeguards would impose.
U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 5.
Attorneys and Law Firms
Gordon P. Erspamer, Ryan G. Hassanein and Stacey M.
Sprenkel, Morrison & Foerster LLP, San Francisco, CA;
Deanne E. Maynard, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Washington,
DC; and Sidney M. Wolinskyand Ronald Elsberry, Disability
Rights Advocates, Berkeley, CA, for the plaintiffs-appellants.
Charles W. Scarborough, United States Department of
Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Section, Washington, D.C.,
for the defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern
District of California, Samuel Conti, Senior District Judge,
Presiding. D.C. No. 3:07cv03758SC.
Before ALEX KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, MARY M.
SCHROEDER, SIDNEY R. THOMAS, SUSAN P.
GRABER, M. MARGARET McKEOWN, KIM McLANEWARDLAW, JOHNNIE B. RAWLINSON, JAY S. BYBEE,
CONSUELO M. CALLAHAN, SANDRA S. IKUTA, and N.
RANDY SMITH, Circuit Judges.
Opinion
OPINION
BYBEE, Circuit Judge:
*1 After a decade of war, many of our veterans are
returning home with physical and psychological wounds that
require competent care. Faced with the daunting task of
providing that care, as well as adjudicating the claims of
hundreds of thousands of veterans seeking disability benefits,
the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)1
is struggling
to provide the care and compensation that our veterans
deserve. See, e.g., Review of Veterans' Claims Processing:
Are CurrentEfforts Working? Hearing Before the S. Comm.
on Veterans' Affairs, 111th Cong. 9 (2010) (statement of
Michael Walcoff, ActingUnder Secretary for Benefits, U.S.
Dep't of Veterans Affairs) (Secretary Shinseki, the Veterans
Benefits Administration (VBA), and the entire VA leadership
fully share the concerns of this Committee, Congress as a
whole, the Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs), the larger
Veteran community, and the American public regarding
the timeliness and accuracy of disability benefit claims
processing.).
Two nonprofit organizations, Veterans for Common Sense
and Veterans United for Truth (collectively VCS), ask us to
remedy delays in the provision of mental health care and the
adjudication of service-connected disability compensation
claims by the VA. VCS's complaint leaves little doubt that
affording VCS the relief it seeks would require the districtcourt to overhaul the manner in which the VA provides
mental health care and adjudicates claims for benefits. VCS
would have the district court, among other things, order
the implementation of new procedures for handling mental
health care requests, create an accelerated appeals process for
claims, and convert the claims-adjudication process into an
adversarial proceeding.
We conclude that we lack jurisdiction to afford such relief
because Congress, in its discretion, has elected to place
judicial review of claims related to the provision of veterans'benefits beyond our reach and within the exclusive purview
of the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. See 38
U.S.C. 511, 7252, 7292; see also Yakus v. United States,
321 U.S. 414, 443, 64 S.Ct. 660, 88 L.Ed. 834 (1944) .
Without jurisdiction the court cannot proceed at all in any
cause. Jurisdiction is power to declare the law, and when
it ceases to exist, the only function remaining to the court
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8/10/2019 Veterans for Common Sense v Shinseki
4/23
ODONNELL KEVIN5/25/2012
For Educational Use Only
Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki, --- F.3d ---- (2012)
12 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4940, 2012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 5907
2012 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 4
is that of announcing the fact and dismissing the cause.
Ex parte McCardle, 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 506, 514, 19 L.Ed.
264 (1868). We conclude that the majority of VCS's claims
must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. And where we
do have jurisdiction to consider VCS's claims, we concludethat granting VCS its requested relief would transform
the adjudication of veterans' benefits into a contentious,
adversarial systema system that Congress has actively
legislated to preclude. See Walters v. Nat'l Ass'n of Radiation
Survivors,473 U.S. 305, 32324, 105 S.Ct. 3180, 87 L.Ed.2d
220 (1985). The Due Process Clause does not demand such
a system.
*2 As much as we as citizens are concerned with the plight
of veterans seeking the prompt provision of the health care
and benefits to which they are entitled by law, as judges we
may not exceed our jurisdiction. We conclude that the district
court lacked jurisdiction to resolve VCS's claims for system-
wide implementation of the VA's mental health care plans,
as well as VCS's request for procedures intended to address
delays in the provision of mental health care. We similarly
determine that the district court lacked jurisdiction to consider
VCS's statutory and due process challenges to delays in the
system of claims adjudication. We do conclude, however, that
the district court had jurisdiction to consider VCS's claims
related to the adjudication procedures in VA Regional Offices
and that the district court properly denied those claims on the
merits.
We therefore affirm the district court in part, reverse in part,
and remand with instructions to dismiss the case.
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND2
There are approximately 25 million veterans in the United
States and, as of May 2007, between 5 and 8 million of
those veterans were enrolled with the VA.3
A significant
number of veterans, many of whom have returned recently
from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, suffer from service-related disabilities, and therefore seek mental health care from
the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and disability
compensation from the Veterans Benefits Administration
(VBA). 4
A. The Suit
In 2007, two nonprofit organizations, Veterans for Common
Sense and Veterans United for Truth, filed suit in the
Northern District of California. On behalf of themselves,
their members, and a putative class of veterans with post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) eligible for or receiving
medical services, and veterans applying for or receiving
service-connected disability benefits, VCS seeks sweepingdeclaratory and injunctive relief. Such relief is warranted,
VCS alleges, because the VA's handing of mental health
care and service-related disability claims deprives VCS of
property in violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Constitution and violates the VA's statutory duty to provide
timely medical care and disability benefits. VCS specifically
disavows seeking relief on behalf of any individual veteran,
but instead challenges average delays in the VA's provision
of mental health care and disability benefits. Compl. 12,
3839. We briefly summarize VCS's claims.
First, with respect to the VHA's duty to provide veterans
with mental health care, VCS challenges VHA procedures
that allegedly result in delayed care.Id. 31, 184200, 277.
VCS also challenges the lack of procedures for veterans to
expedite that care. Id. 31, 277. VCS therefore asked the
district court to declare, among other things, that the lack of
procedures to remedy delays in the provision of medical care
and treatment violates due process.Id. 31, 25860. VCS
also seeks to enjoin the VA from permitting protracted delays
in the provision of mental health care and to compel the VHA
to implement governmental recommendations for improving
the provision of mental health care.5
Id. 31, 277.
*3 Second, VCS challenges VBA delays in the adjudication
and resolution of disability-compensation claims under both
the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the Due
Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Id. 31, 145
83, 277. VCS asserts that the adjudication of those claims,
which begins at one of the VA's 57 Regional Offices and
proceeds through the Board of Veterans' Appeals, the Court of
Appeals for Veterans Claims (Veterans Court),6
an Article
I court, 38 U.S.C. 7251, 7266(a), and the Federal Circuit,
38 U.S.C. 7292(a), is plagued by unreasonable delays that
result in a functional denial of benefits. Compl. 31, 145
83, 277. VCStherefore seeks both declaratory and injunctive
relief to remedy those delays.Id. 277.
Finally, VCS challenges the constitutionality of numerous
VBA practices and procedures, including the absence of
trial-like procedures at the VA's Regional Offices. Id.
30, 20103, 26263. VCS also seeks to enjoin the VBA
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8/10/2019 Veterans for Common Sense v Shinseki
5/23
ODONNELL KEVIN5/25/2012
For Educational Use Only
Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki, --- F.3d ---- (2012)
12 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4940, 2012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 5907
2012 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 5
from prematurely denying PTSD and other service-connected
disability compensation claims.Id. 31, 277.7
B. The District Court Denies VCS Relief
After the district court denied in large part the VA's motion
to dismiss, VCS requested a preliminary injunction on its
mental health claims. The district court held an evidentiary
hearing, but deferred ruling on the preliminary injunction,
instead merging the request with a bench trial on the merits
that would address all of VCS's claims.8
The district court held a seven-day bench trial and, two
months later, issued a comprehensive Memorandum of
Decision, Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. See
Veterans for Common Sense v. Peake (Veterans ), 563
F.Supp.2d 1049 (N.D.Cal.2008). The district court denied
VCS's various claims and concluded that ordering the relief
requested by VCS would draw the district court into resolving
when and how care is provideda role that it was not
equipped to undertake. Id. at 108082. First, with respect
to the VHA's provision of mental health care, the district
court rejected VCS's challenge because VCS failed to identify
a discrete, final agency action that the VA was required
to take. Id. at 108283; see 5 U.S.C. 706(1); see also
Norton v. S. Utah Wilderness Alliance,542 U.S. 55, 64, 124
S.Ct. 2373, 159 L.Ed.2d 137 (2004). Similarly, the district
court rejected VCS's due process claims challenging the VA's
failure to provide timely and effective mental health care
because the VA's health care system reflected an appropriate
balance between safeguarding the veteran's interest in
medical treatment and permitting medical treatment without
overly burdensome procedural protections. Veterans, 563
F.Supp.2d at 1082.
With respect to the VBA's administration of service-related
disability compensation, the district court denied VCS relief
on the grounds that both 38 U.S.C. 511 and 502
precluded its review. The court reasoned that, because [t]heissue ... of whether a veteran's benefit[s] claim adjudication
has been substantially delayed will often hinge on specific
facts of that veteran's claim, it lacked jurisdiction under 38
U.S.C. 511(a)to review the causes of delayed adjudication.
Id. at 108384. It likewise found that ordering the VBA
to remedy delays by implementing new procedures would
invariably implicate VA regulations, review of which may
be conducted only by the Federal Circuit under 38 U.S.C.
502. Id.at 1084.The district court, however, reached the
merits of VCS's disability-based claims, but concluded that
neither delays in the VBA's Regional Offices' adjudication of
disability-related claims, nor the lack of trial-like protections
for veterans raising such claims, was unreasonable underthe APA or violative of due process. Id. at 108586. The
district court therefore denied VCS's request for a permanent
injunction and declaratory relief, and granted judgment in
favor of the VA.Id.at 1092.
*4 VCS appealed. A panel of this court, by a 21 majority,
reversed on the constitutional claims. Veterans for Common
Sense v. Shinseki, 644 F.3d 845, 878 (9th Cir.2011). The
panel affirmed the district court's conclusion that the VA's
procedures at its Regional Offices satisfieddue process.Id.at
88788.We granted the VA's petition for rehearing en banc.
Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki,663 F.3d 1033 (9th
Cir.2011).
II. JURISDICTION
Before we may address VCS's claims on the merits, we
must consider the government's argument that the Veterans'
Judicial Review Act, Pub.L. No. 100687, div. A, 102 Stat.
4105 (1988) (VJRA), codified at various sections in Title
38, deprives us of jurisdiction over these claims. See Steel
Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env't,523 U.S. 83, 94, 118 S.Ct.
1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210(1998)(holdingthat acourt must havejurisdiction to reach the merits). We first review the history
of the VJRA and Congress's long-held concern with judicial
intrusion into the VA's handling of veterans' requests for
benefits. We then consider the way inwhich the courts have
construed the provision in the VJRA that precludes review of
VA decisions, 38 U.S.C. 511.
A.Jurisdiction over Veterans Benefits
[1] [2] Article III confers [t]he judicial Power of the
United States on a supreme court and such inferior Courts
as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.
U.S. Const. art. III, 1. The judicial Power vested in such
courts extend[s] to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising
under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and
Treaties made. Id.art. III, 2, cl. 1. Article III is not self-
executing, however, so the jurisdiction of inferior federal
courts depends on an affirmative statutory grant. See United
States v. Hudson, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 32, 33, 3 L.Ed. 259
(1812)([Only] the Supreme Court[ ] possesses jurisdiction
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-
8/10/2019 Veterans for Common Sense v Shinseki
6/23
ODONNELL KEVIN5/25/2012
For Educational Use Only
Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki, --- F.3d ---- (2012)
12 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4940, 2012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 5907
2012 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 6
derived immediately from the constitution, and of which
the legislative power cannot deprive it. All other Courts
created by the general Government possess no jurisdiction
but what is given them by the power that creates them,
and can be vested with none but what the power ceded tothe general Government will authorize them to confer.).
Article III's federal question jurisdiction is statutorily
conferred on federal district courts in 28 U.S.C. 1331, which
VCS cites as the source of the district court's jurisdictional
authority. That section provides: The district courts shall
have original jurisdiction of all civil actions arising under
the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States. 28
U.S.C. 1331. But the fact that federal courts are vested
with such jurisdiction over all civil actions does not mean
that all federal courts may exercise jurisdiction over all such
civil actions. The Constitution also grants to Congress thepower to control federal court jurisdiction through such
Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress
shall make. U.S. Const. art. III, 2, cl. 2; see Palmore
v. United States, 411 U.S. 389, 40001, 93 S.Ct. 1670, 36
L.Ed.2d 342 (1973) (holding that Congress is not required
to vest inferior federal courts with all the jurisdiction it
was authorized to bestow under Art. III). And Congress
is under no obligation to confer jurisdiction upon inferior
federal courts equally; indeed, no court can assert a just claim
to jurisdiction exclusively conferred on another, or withheld
from all. Sheldon v. Sill,49 U.S. (8 How.) 441, 449, 12 L.Ed.1147 (1850)(Congress may withhold from any court of its
creation jurisdiction of any of the enumerated controversies.
Courts created by statute can have no jurisdiction but such as
the statute confers.).
*5 In cases involving benefits owed to veterans, Congress
has created a scheme conferring exclusive jurisdiction over
claims affecting veterans' benefits to some federal courts,
while denying all other federal courts any jurisdiction over
such claims. The source of that statutory scheme is the
Veterans' Judicial Review Act of 1988. To understand the
import of the VJRA, and how it affects our jurisdiction to
consider VCS's claims here, it is helpful to examine the
history of judicial review of VA decisions.
1. History of Judicial Review
Our discussion will be brief because the history of judicial
review of VA decisionmaking is a short one. Congress
established the VA in 1930. Act of July 3, 1930, ch. 863,
1, 46 Stat. 1016, 1016. Three years later, Congress prohibited
judicial review of the VA's benefits decisions. Act of Mar.
20, 1933, ch. 3, 5, 48 Stat. 8, 9 (All decisions rendered
by the Administrator under ... this title, or the regulations
issued pursuant thereto, shall be final and conclusive on allquestions of law and fact, and no other official or court of
the United States shall have jurisdiction to review ... any
such decision.); see alsoLynch v. United States,292 U.S.
571, 587, 54 S.Ct. 840, 78 L.Ed. 1434 (1934) (construing
the statute to remove the possibility of judicial relief).
Congress has consistently precluded judicial review of
veterans' benefits determinations thereafter.Larrabee ex rel.
Jones v. Derwinski,968 F.2d 1497, 1499 (2d Cir.1992).
Over time, however, exceptions to the preclusion provision
began to appear. This development occurred most notably in
the D.C. Circuit, see, e.g., Tracy v. Gleason,379 F.2d 469,
47273 (D.C.Cir.1967), where a procession of decisions ...
significantly narrow[ed] the preclusion statute and limited
its application to bar review of challenges related to initial
filing of claims. Larrabee ex rel. Jones, 968 F.2d at 1500
(quoting Note, Judicial Review of Allegedly Ultra Vires
Actions of the Veterans' Administration: Does 38 U.S.C.
211(a) Preclude Review?, 55 Fordham L.Rev. 579, 596
(1987) (alteration in original)). In response to the D.C.
Circuit's fairly tortured construction of the jurisdictional
limitation, in 1970 Congress reemphasized its clear intent
that the exemption from judicial review ... be all inclusive,
and it amended the statute to provide that except for certain
contractual benefits, the decisions of the Administrator on any
question of law or fact under any law administered by the
Veterans' Administration shall be unreviewable. H.R.Rep.
No. 911166 at 10 (1970),reprinted in1970 U.S.C.C.A.N.
3723, 373031. The result was 38 U.S.C. 211,9
the
precursor to 511, which we construe here.
Four years later, the Supreme Court interpreted 211in the
context of an equal protection challenge to statutes related
to veterans' benefits.Johnson v. Robison,415 U.S. 361, 94
S.Ct. 1160, 39 L.Ed.2d 389 (1974). The Supreme Court held
that 211 precluded only review of decisions that arise
in the administration by the Veterans' Administration of a
statuteproviding benefits for veterans. Id.at 367, 94 S.Ct.
1160(emphasis added). Declaring that construing 211 to
eliminate all federal court review of constitutional challenges
to veterans' benefits legislation would raise serious questions
concerning the constitutionality of 211, and invoking
???
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8/10/2019 Veterans for Common Sense v Shinseki
7/23
ODONNELL KEVIN5/25/2012
For Educational Use Only
Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki, --- F.3d ---- (2012)
12 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4940, 2012 Daily Journal D.A.R. 5907
2012 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 7
the constitutional avoidance doctrine, the Court construed
211 to allow federal court review of a challenge to the
constitutionality of the statute itself. Id.at 36667, 94 S.Ct.
1160. The Robison Court therefore concluded that district
courts had jurisdiction to consider a direct facial challenge tostatutes affecting veterans' benefits.Id.at 367, 94 S.Ct. 1160.
*6 Fourteen years after deciding Robison, the Supreme
Court revisited the jurisdictional limitations of 211 in
Traynor v. Turnage,485 U.S. 535,108 S.Ct. 1372, 99 L.Ed.2d
618 (1988). There, the Court held that 211 did not bar
federal courts from reviewing whether the VA's regulations
conflicted with 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
29 U.S.C. 794, which requires that federal programs not
discriminate against handicapped individuals solely because
of their handicap. Traynor, 485 U.S. at 545, 108 S.Ct.
1372.Section 211(a), the Court said, insulates from review
decisions of law and fact ... made in interpreting or applying
a particular provision of that statute to a particular set of
facts. Id. at 543, 108 S.Ct. 1372. The Court noted that
the VA had no special expertise in assessing the validity
of its regulations against a later passed statute of general
application.Id.at 544, 108 S.Ct. 1372.The Court doubted
that permitting federal court review would interfere with
the VA or burden the agency with expensive and time-
consuming litigation.Id.(internal quo