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Garland Williamson v. Douglas A. Collins, Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 2024-1770 · judgment July 16, 2025


Certiorari denied · February 23, 2026
Pre-decision estimate: 0% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

Whether a federal appellate court may affirm the dismissal of a statutory claim without interpreting the governing statute, without applying the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirement that courts “decide all relevant questions of law,” 5 U.S.C. § 706, and without enforcing mandate-fixed factual predicates established earlier in the same litigation—where the court below treated statutory meaning as irrelevant and relied on factual premises that contradict the litigation’s binding mandate.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Garland O. Williamson

For respondent
D. John Sauer
Solicitor General

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Linked docket
25A392

Proceedings

  1. Feb 23 2026
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Feb 04 2026
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/20/2026.
  3. Jan 29 2026
    Waiver of right of respondent Collins, Douglas to respond filed.
  4. Dec 19 2025
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 4, 2026)
  5. Oct 06 2025
    Application (25A392) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until January 17, 2026.
  6. Sep 27 2025
    Application (25A392) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from November 18, 2025 to January 17, 2026, submitted to The Chief Justice.