Great Moments In This Administration

The Widget:

Court: D.C. Circuit
Judge: Brown
Subject: Veterans
Tone: Unremarkable
Importance: 5.5

Given the way the Bush Administration has gone about its business, you have to wonder what they have against veterans. Today, in Cody v. Cox, D.C. Cir. No. 06-5253, the D.C. Circuit reversed a trial court’s dismissal of claims brought by residents of the Armed Forces Retirement Home – Washington, D.C. These veterans claimed that the ingrates – er, the Administration – violated their statutory right to high quality care when the Home’s chief operating officer imposed draconian cost saving measures. Their specific complaints related to “unavailability of physicians and dentists, neglect of patients, and delays in obtaining prescription drugs.” So not very important stuff.

In response, Congress passed a statute that gave the veterans additional detailed rights beyond their generalized entitlement to “high quality” healthcare. The ingrates’ – sorry, the Administration’s – response to that was to say to the trial court “OK! Awesome! Problem solved!” The trial court agreed. But today the D.C. Circuit, that bastion of left wing activism, said “Not so fast.”