Veterans Law Appendix 138 Harv. L. Rev. 2093

Appendix for Codify Gardner


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This Appendix provides the dataset used in the Note, Codify Gardner. The table below lists the decisions that cited Gardner’s presumption, or the pro-veteran canon, between 2013 and 2023, as identified by editors of the Harvard Law Review.1

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Was the Canon Determinative?

Case

Citation

Date

No — No ambiguity.2

Viegas v. Shinseki

705 F.3d 1374, 1378–80

1/31/13

No — Marriage case controlled by state law.

Burden v. Shinseki

727 F.3d 1161, 1169

7/16/13

No — Decided under Chevron and Auer.

Mason v. Shinseki

743 F.3d 1370, 1374, 1376 & n.5

2/21/14

No — No ambiguity.

Spicer v. Shinseki

752 F.3d 1367, 1371

5/30/14

No — Cited only in concurrence.

Johnson v. McDonald

762 F.3d 1362, 1367 (O’Malley, J., concurring)

8/6/14

No — Chevron trumps Gardner.

Nat’l Org. of Veterans’ Advocs., Inc. v. Sec’y of Veterans Affs.

809 F.3d 1359, 1363

1/13/16

No — No ambiguity.

Sullivan v. McDonald

815 F.3d 786, 790–92

3/8/16

Yes.

Hudgens v. McDonald

823 F.3d 630, 637

5/18/16

No — No ambiguity, and the canon is otherwise inapplicable.

Parrott v. Shulkin

851 F.3d 1242, 1251

3/13/17

No — Cited Gardner, but not for the canon.

Ollis v. Shulkin

857 F.3d 1338, 1341–43

5/26/17

No — Cited in passing.

Gazelle v. Shulkin

868 F.3d 1006, 1012

8/22/17

No — Cited only in dissent.

Parkinson v. DOJ

874 F.3d 710, 722 (Linn, J., dissenting)

10/26/17

No — Cited only in dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc.

Kisor v. Shulkin

880 F.3d 1378, 1379 (O’Malley, J., dissenting)

1/31/18

No — Cited in passing.

PDS Consultants, Inc. v. United States

907 F.3d 1345, 1357

10/17/18

No — No ambiguity.

Procopio v. Wilkie

913 F.3d 1371, 1380

1/29/19

No — No ambiguity.

Kisor v. McDonough

995 F.3d 1316, 1325

8/12/20

No — No ambiguity.

Kisor v. Wilkie

969 F.3d 1333, 1342

8/12/20

No — Referenced in passing.

Murphy v. Wilkie

983 F.3d 1313, 1318

12/21/20

No — Cited only in noncontrolling opinions in relation to the denial of rehearing en banc.

Kisor v. McDonough

995 F.3d 1347, 1348, 1360 (Hughes, J., concurring), 1361 (Dyk, J., concurring), 1366 (O’Malley, J., dissenting)

4/30/21

No — Cited only in concurrence.

Arellano v. McDonough

1 F.4th 1059, 1096 (Dyk, J., concurring in the judgment)

6/17/21

No — Referenced in passing.

Taylor v. McDonough

3 F.4th 1351, 1366–67

6/30/21

No — Cited for reenactment.

Mil.-Veterans Advoc. v. Sec’y of Veterans Affs.

7 F.4th 1110, 1139

7/30/21

No — Cited only in dissent.

Buffington v. McDonough

7 F.4th 1361, 1374 (O’Malley, J., dissenting)

8/6/21

No — Cited in passing.

Nicely v. United States

23 F.4th 1364, 1369

1/20/22

No — Argument not developed enough.

Veteran Warriors, Inc. v. Sec’y of Veterans Affs.

29 F.4th 1320, 1327 n.4

3/25/22

Yes.

Nat’l Org. of Veterans’ Advocs., Inc. v. Sec’y of Veterans Affs.

48 F.4th 1307, 1317

9/20/22

No — No ambiguity.

Rudisill v. McDonough

55 F.4th 879, 887

12/15/22

No — No ambiguity.

Cranford v. McDonough

55 F.4th 1325, 1328

12/19/22

No — No ambiguity.

Cooper v. McDonough

57 F.4th 1366, 1373

1/23/23

No — No ambiguity.

Spicer v. McDonough

61 F.4th 1360, 1363

3/8/23

Footnotes
  1. ^ This dataset builds on cases identified by Board of Veterans Appeals Associate Counsel Carolyn Ryan. Carolyn Ryan, The Common Law Solution to Gardner’s Presumption, 8 Veterans L. Rev. 24, 35 (2016). It focuses on Federal Circuit cases rather than ones from the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, as the former set more likely presented questions that implicated canons of interpretation. Moreover, it includes only published decisions, as unpublished ones are not binding authority.

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  2. ^ The canon applies only in cases of ambiguity. Note, Codify Gardner, supra note *, at 2093 nn.2–3.

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