## Facts

- After a precedential decision addressing whether certain Vietnam-era offshore (“blue water”) veterans qualified for a presumption of Agent Orange exposure, the Secretary appealed that decision to the Federal Circuit.
- While the appeal was pending, the Chairman of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals issued a memorandum staying all Board appeals “potentially affected” by the disputed exposure issue.
- The American Legion, a veterans’ service organization, filed an original petition for extraordinary relief (mandamus) seeking rescission of the stay and prompt adjudication of affected appeals.
- The American Legion asserted associational standing on behalf of member veterans whose Board appeals were delayed by the blanket stay.
- The petition challenged the stay as overbroad and open-ended, and as conflicting with limits previously recognized on unilateral agency-wide stays of adjudication.

## Issues

1. Whether a veterans’ service organization has associational standing to seek mandamus relief on behalf of members whose Board appeals are subject to a Board-wide stay.
2. Whether the Board Chairman or the Secretary may impose a broad, indefinite stay of a class of Board appeals pending resolution of related appellate litigation.
3. Whether the mandamus requirements—clear and indisputable entitlement to relief, lack of adequate alternative means, and appropriateness of the writ—were satisfied.

## Decision

- The court held that the American Legion had associational standing to pursue mandamus relief on behalf of affected members.
- The court granted the petition in part, concluding that the blanket stay could not remain in the form issued.
- The court directed that the stay be rescinded or narrowed to comply with judicially enforceable limits, rather than functioning as an open-ended administrative suspension of adjudication.
- The court’s remedial direction sought to prevent indefinite delay of veterans’ appeals solely due to the pendency of related appellate proceedings.

## Legal Principles

- A veterans’ service organization may obtain associational standing to seek extraordinary relief when members are directly harmed by a challenged, system-wide adjudicatory practice, the claim is germane to the organization’s purpose, and the requested relief does not require individual member participation.
- Mandamus may issue where agency action effectively withholds adjudication in a way that is not otherwise reviewable through ordinary appellate routes because no final Board decision exists.
- The Secretary and the Board may not impose an overbroad, indefinite, unilateral stay of a category of appeals merely because a related legal issue is on review in a higher court; any pause in adjudication must be limited and subject to meaningful judicial control.
- The court may use extraordinary writ authority to protect its jurisdiction and ensure that administrative case-management measures do not nullify judicial review by producing systemic delay.

## Conclusion

The court permitted a veterans’ service organization to pursue mandamus on behalf of affected members and curtailed VA’s use of a blanket Board-wide stay pending appellate review, requiring rescission or narrowing of the stay to prevent indefinite delay and to preserve judicial oversight of systemic adjudicatory pauses.


Am. Legion v. Nicholson, 21 Vet. App. 1 (2007)