State prosecutors ask Supreme Court to protect veterans’ rights
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is leading a bipartisan group of attorneys general from 33 states and the District of Columbia in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of a veteran denied certain educational benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Miyares and the coalition of attorneys general assert Virginia resident and decorated Army veteran Jason Rudisill was wrongly denied his Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits. After completing his first tour of duty, Rudisill, as an enlisted soldier, utilized his Montgomery GI Bill benefits to complete his undergraduate degree. “[Rudisill] was twice honorably discharged, and relied on approximately 25 months of education benefits under the Montgomery GI Bill before November 2007 to obtain his undergraduate degree. He then reenlisted, was commissioned as an officer, and served a third tour from 2007 to 2011,” according to the brief filed by the state prosecutors. After completing his third tour of duty, Rudisill was accepted into Yale Divinity School with hopes of returning to the armed forces as a chaplain. Rudisill attempted to use his Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, but the VA denied his request. The VA defended its decision by saying Rudisill was not entitled to use both the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post 9/11 GI Bill. The VA specifies veterans’ preference in deciding which GI Bill they opt to utilize, “If you’re eligible for more than one education benefit, such as the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Montgomery GI Bill, you must choose which benefit to receive.” Advocates for Rudisill argue veterans with “multiple requisite periods of service” are entitled up to 48 months of educational benefits. During Rudisill’s third tour of duty Congress passed the Post 9/11 GI Bill. “He applied for Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits based on his understanding that, under the Bill, he had approximately 22 months of education benefits remaining out of his 48 aggregate months,” the brief explained. The VA determined Rudisill’s Post-9/11 benefits would be limited to 10 months and 16 days, “because [Rudisill] had used some of his entitled benefits under the prior version of the GI Bill.” The Montgomery GI Bill and the Post-9/11 GI Bill entitle eligible veterans to receive up to 36 months of tuition payouts. The Montgomery GI Bill offers up to a set monthly amount, which is sent directly to the student. The Post-9/11 GI Bill pays the tuition to the school. Under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, students are eligible for housing or book stipends, which is not included under the Montgomery GI Bill. The coalition of attorneys general contends hundreds of thousands of veterans’ “rights” are in “jeopardy” by the Federal Circuit’s decision and are requesting the Supreme Court “secure” those rights by striking the lower court’s decision. The state prosecutors say the decision made by the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit to uphold the VA’s decision in the case of Rudisill v. McDonough, could negatively impact post-9/11 veterans. “The Federal Circuit took away both Rudisill and thousands of other post-9/11 veterans’ GI education benefits,” said Miyares. “This decision actively hurts veterans’ reentry into civilian life and deprives them of earned benefits.” Miyares is concerned the decision will negatively impact veterans as they transition out of the military. “Over 700,000 veterans live in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This decision actively hurts veterans’ reentry into civilian life and deprives them of earned benefits,” Miyares said. The Center Square reached out to the VA for comment; it had yet to respond at the time of publication. State prosecutors joining Miyares are from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the District of Columbia. Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Twenty-one attorneys general want Joe Biden to designate Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations
Five months after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott designated two Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and called on President Joe Biden to do the same, 21 attorneys general also called on the president to do so. The attorneys general sent a letter to the president and Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week after the president’s state of the union address in which he didn’t designate illicit fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction or designate the cartels as FTOs, requests previously made by attorneys general and Gov. Abbott. Last September, Abbott issued an executive order designating the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and any similarly situated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations” under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. He also requested the president do likewise, the second time he’s made the request since April 2021. In his September 21, 2022 letter, Abbott said since then, “There was no action, no response.” “But if you are ready to make Americans safer,” he wrote the president, “it will be better late than never. As the number of American deaths continues to rise due to the cartels’ terrorist behavior, now is the time to act. We do not have more time to waste.” Still receiving no response, he’s said within one year of Joe Biden’s presidency, fentanyl had killed nearly 20 times more people than those killed in terrorist attacks over decades. Through Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, Texas law enforcement officers have seized over 360 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill more than everyone in the U.S. Florida law enforcement officers in just a few months last year also seized enough fentanyl to kill everyone in the state. Law enforcement officers in other states are seizing record amounts. While Biden mentioned last week that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had seized over 28,000 pounds of fentanyl, he didn’t mention they’ve done so since February 2021 or that in fiscal years 2021 and 2022, they’d seized enough fentanyl to kill nearly 5 billion people. Two milligrams, roughly the weight of a mosquito, is considered a lethal dose. The attorneys general echoed Abbott’s concerns in their letter, pointing to the fentanyl crisis being facilitated by Mexican cartels manufacturing fentanyl and trafficking it, its precursors, and other drugs laced with it through the southern border. They also point to the ruthless violence being committed by Mexican cartels on both sides of the border. Mexican cartels are “assassinating rivals and government officials, ambushing and killing Americans at the border, and engaging in an armed insurgency against the Mexican government,” the AGs write. “This dangerous terrorist activity occurring at our border will not abate unless we escalate our response.” “The Mexican drug cartels threaten our national security beyond the sale of these deadly drugs,” they continue. “Over the past decade, Mexican drug cartels have developed well-organized armed forces to protect their reprehensible trade from rivals and from the Mexican government. The existence of such forces just across our southwestern land border, and the Mexican government’s inability to control them, pose a threat to our national security far greater than a typical drug-trafficking enterprise. That threat is made greater still by the known links between the Mexican drug cartels and [FTOs] like Hezbollah, who already intend to do us harm. Our national security requires the federal government to disrupt this collaboration between cartels and terrorist groups.” Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares led a coalition of 21 attorneys general representing the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. Miyares last year joined a coalition of 18 AGs led by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody calling on Biden to designate fentanyl as a WMD, about which he said, “To date, no action has been taken.” In a separate statement, AG Moody said, “It’s evident that the Mexican drug cartels are terrorist organizations,” referring to them “trafficking deadly fentanyl directly across the border … killing tens of thousands of Americans,” and “fueling extreme violence at the southwest border and beyond.” “Sadly, the Biden administration has only emboldened the cartels to commit even more crimes on both sides of the border,” she said, citing a story published by The Center Square about a recent “cartel-style execution [that] occurred in California that reportedly involved a Mexican drug cartel.” She’s also called on the president to hold Mexico and China accountable for their role in creating the fentanyl crisis and has yet to hear back. The AGs argue the cartels’ “recent embrace of extreme violence further justifies their designation as an FTO.” Under 8 US Code, Section 1189, the Secretary of State may designate an organization as an FTO, which gives state and federal agencies the authority to freeze assets, deny entry to cartel members and pursue stricter punishments. Instead, President Biden said his plan to address the fentanyl crisis involved having “more drug detection machines,” implementing greater inspection of cargo to “stop pills and powder [coming in through] the border,” “working with couriers, like FedEx, to inspect more packages for drugs,” and implementing “strong penalties to crack down on fentanyl trafficking.” In response, Texas lawmakers blasted his plan, and Gov. Abbott said, “Once again, President Biden proved Texas leads, and Washington follows.” Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
