Court Rules Alcoholic Vets Can Be Denied VA Benefits : Condition Can Be Seen as ‘Willful’

The Supreme Court ruled today that the government may disqualify military veterans who are alcoholics from receiving benefits by viewing their condition as “willful misconduct” rather than an uncontrollable disease.

By a 4-3 vote, the justices said the Veterans Administration, in denying benefits to two men, did not violate a federal law protecting the rights of the handicapped.

The court did not decide whether alcoholism is a disease but said the VA is not compelled to regard it as such.

“It is not our role to resolve this medical issue on which the authorities remain sharply divided,” said Justice Byron R. White for the court.

White said a law known as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act does not require the VA to treat alcoholism as a disease. The act, passed by Congress in 1973, bars federal programs or anyone receiving federal aid from discriminating against handicapped individuals solely because of their handicap.

No ‘Irreconcilable Conflict’

“In our view, it is by no means clear that Section 504 and the characterization of primary alcoholism as a willfully incurred disability are in irreconcilable conflict,” White said.

Those who believe that there is a conflict should ask Congress to change the law, he said.

The three dissenters said the VA should not be allowed to treat all alcoholics in the same way and automatically dismiss their benefit claims on the ground that the veterans are guilty of misconduct.

Dissenting were Justices Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan and Thurgood Marshall.

On White’s side were Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O’Connor.

Challenged by Two

The VA policy that regards alcoholism as misconduct was challenged by Eugene Traynor, 46, a supervisor in a photography laboratory in New York City, and James P. McKelvey, 42, an alcoholism counselor in Washington.

Both men, who began drinking when they were children, received honorable discharges from the Army in the late 1960s. They said they have abstained from drinking alcohol since the early 1970s, when they were hospitalized and treated for the condition.

The VA authorizes payment of education benefits to veterans within 10 years of their discharge. No benefits are paid after 10 years unless a veteran can show that he or she was unable to pursue an education “because of a physical or mental disability which was not the result of such veteran’s own willful misconduct.”

The VA provides an exemption from the 10-year time limit for alcoholism only when it is a secondary symptom of other psychological problems.

Traynor and McKelvey filed federal lawsuits claiming that the VA was discriminating illegally against the handicapped.

Sees Discouraging Message

Federal appeals courts ruled against them in separate cases.

McKelvey said today that the high court’s decision gives a discouraging message “to other recovering alcoholics, or more importantly, people that are out there struggling, trying to get sober, and dying from this disease.”

Norma Phillips, the national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said her organization welcomes the decision because she believes that it will encourage judges to give tougher sentences in drunk driving cases.

“There are some judges who feel people are not able to make a decision after they drink,” said Phillips, of Escondido, Calif. “They feel they have an alcohol problem so they give lighter sentences.”

A spokesman for Alcoholics Anonymous said the question of whether or not alcohol abuse is a disease does not matter in AA treatment, which calls for group support in staying sober.