Court Listened to AMA on Defining Alcoholism as a Disease, Not a Crime

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Tell That to the Police –

AUGUST 16, 2019 – IN 1988, THE SUPREME COURT DECIDED A CASE IN WHICH THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS (VA) WOULDN’T GRANT MORE TIME FOR TWO VETERANS WHO WERE PRIMARY ALCOHOLICS—OR HAD ALCOHOLISM UNRELATED TO A PSYCHIATRIC CONDITION—TO USE THE EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS ALLOWED UNDER THE GI BILL. THIS TIME, THE AMA GOT INVOLVED BY FILING AN AMICUS BRIEF, WHICH THE COURT REFERENCED IN ITS OPINION THAT SIDED WITH THE VETERANS.

Veterans must use their benefits within 10 years of leaving the military unless granted an extension because “a physical or mental disorder that was not the result of [their] own willful misconduct” prevented them from using it. In Traynor v. Turnage, two veterans sued saying the VA regulation violated the Rehabilitation Act after the VA defined alcoholism as willful misconduct.

The Supreme Court ruled that Congress intended to include people with alcoholism in the Rehabilitation Act and that the veterans should be allowed an extension to use their benefits. In the ruling, the justices cited the AMA brief, saying that the policy “does not deny extensions of the delimiting period to all alcoholics but only to those whose drinking was not attributable to an underlying psychiatric disorder. It is estimated by some authorities that mental illness is responsible for 20% to 30% of all alcoholism cases.”