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David L. Henderson, a Korean war veteran who was released from the military due to a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, applied for additional benefits and missed the appeal deadline by fifteen days (he had 120 days, and it took him 135 days to appeal). His appeal was denied. This, despite statements from his doctor that Mr. Henderson “is incapable of rational thought or deliberate decision-making,”
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled against Henderson, citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Bowles v. Russell. In dissent, Judge Haldane R. Mayer wrote that the majority’s decision was “both ironic and inhumane.”
Henderson’s attorneys have asked the Supreme Court to hear his appeal.