38 U.S.C. § 7252
Section 7252 · Jurisdiction; finality of decisions
Amended 5 times on record
Applied in 1,106 court decisions — leading case Scarborough v. Principi (2004)
Most recently applied in Ravin v. McDonough (July 2024)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 38 U.S.C. § 7104 · 38 U.S.C. § 7261 · 38 U.S.C. § 5107
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims shall have exclusive jurisdiction to review decisions of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. The Secretary may not seek review of any such decision. The Court shall have power to affirm, modify, or reverse a decision of the Board or to remand the matter, as appropriate.
(b) Review in the Court shall be on the record of proceedings before the Secretary and the Board. The extent of the review shall be limited to the scope provided in section 7261 of this title. The Court may not review the schedule of ratings for disabilities adopted under section 1155 of this title or any action of the Secretary in adopting or revising that schedule.
(c) Decisions by the Court are subject to review as provided in section 7292 of this title.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1998—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 105–368 substituted “Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims” for “Court of Veterans Appeals”.
1991—Pub. L. 102–40, §402(b)(1), renumbered section 4052 of this title as this section.
Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102–83, §4(b)(1), (2)(E), substituted “Secretary” for “Administrator”.
Pub. L. 102–54 amended subsec. (a) as in effect immediately before the enactment of Pub. L. 102–40 by substituting “Court” for “court” in last sentence.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 102–83, §5(c)(1), substituted “1155” for “355”.
Pub. L. 102–83, §4(b)(1), (2)(E), substituted “Secretary” for “Administrator” in two places.
Pub. L. 102–40, §402(d)(1), substituted “7261” for “4061”.
Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 102–40, §402(d)(1), substituted “7292” for “4092”.
Effective Date of 1998 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 105–368 effective on first day of first month beginning more than 90 days after Nov. 11, 1998, see section 513 of Pub. L. 105–368, set out as a note under section 7251 of this title.