Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Kevin Steele v. Douglas A. Collins, Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 2023-2049 · judgment May 1, 2025
(petition-stage, structural)
Well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Question presented
In the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (“VA”) intentionally pro-claimant system for adjudicating benefits, a veteran’s period for appealing the denial of a benefits claim only begins to run when the agency issues a notice of decision with respect to the claim at issue. Otherwise, the claim remains pending, permitting claimants to recover past benefits that were wrongly denied if entitlement is later established. Since at least 1990, the statute and regulation governing VA notices of decision have required the agency to provide, at a minimum, a “statement of the reasons for the decision,” and to “clearly set forth” the “decision made” and the “reasons,” whenever denying a benefit. Pub. L. No. 101-237, § 115(a), 103 Stat. 2062, 2065-66 (effective January 31, 1990) (codified as amended at 38 U.S.C. § 5104 (1991)); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.103(b), (f) (1990); see also 38 U.S.C. § 5104 (2017) (strengthening notice requirements); 38 C.F.R. § 3.103(f) (same). Under the judge-made “implicit denial rule,” however, the VA has deemed past claims “implicitly” denied—and the appeals period expired— whenever the agency concludes that a “reasonable claimant” would have inferred that the claim had been denied based on the VA’s notice of decision on another claim. The question presented is: Under the statutory and regulatory notice requirements governing VA decisions since 1990, is the VA permitted to retroactively deem a claim “implicitly denied” when the agency never issued a notice explicitly setting forth the claim at issue or the reason for its denial?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Jenny Jing Zhang
White & Case LLP
For respondent
D. John Sauer
Solicitor General
Proceedings
- Aug 12 2026DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/28/2026.
- Aug 10 2026Reply of petitioner Kevin Steele filed. (Distributed)
- Jul 27 2026Brief of respondent Douglas A. Collins in opposition filed.
- Jun 22 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including July 27, 2026.
- Jun 18 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response from June 26, 2026 to July 27, 2026, submitted to The Clerk.
- May 20 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including June 26, 2026.
- May 19 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response from May 27, 2026 to June 26, 2026, submitted to The Clerk.
- Apr 28 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including May 27, 2026.
- Apr 27 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response from April 27, 2026 to May 27, 2026, submitted to The Clerk.
- Apr 27 2026Brief amicus curiae of The National Organization of Veterans’ Advocates filed.
- Apr 27 2026Brief amicus curiae of Military-Veterans Advocacy, Inc. filed.
- Mar 17 2026Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 27, 2026)
- Mar 05 2026Application (25A822) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until March 17, 2026.
- Feb 27 2026Application (25A822) to extend further the time from March 10, 2026 to March 17, 2026, submitted to The Chief Justice.
- Jan 21 2026Application (25A822) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until March 10, 2026.
- Jan 14 2026Application (25A822) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from January 29, 2026 to March 10, 2026, submitted to The Chief Justice.