The Veterans Administration (VA), charged with implementing the provisions of the G.I. Bill, denied benefits to blue-discharge veterans,. despite the Bill's explicit language that made only a dishonorable discharge grounds for denying benefits to a veteran.. In 1945, the VA issued a directive that all blue-discharges for homosexuality would be denied benefits.. On December 22, 1955, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied an appeal from Raymond W. Longernecker, who had been denied his G.I. Bill benefits by the VA because of his blue discharge. The Court found that the VA had discretion in awarding benefits and that Congress had specifically foreclosed the courts from overruling it. Nevertheless, the Court noted that the denial of benefits should only have occurred if Longernecker had been dishonorably discharged and that the VA Administrator was acting without authority in treating a blue discharge as if it were dishonorable.
