A North Carolina judge’s decision could put thousands of veterans back in the lines in which they’ve been stuck for too long already. This decision is a major blow to private-sector options that are trying to help veterans move through the VA’s horrid bureaucracy. I’ve spent more than a decade in North Carolina policy circles, including North Carolina think tanks, and this decision, while federal, will significantly impact people in this state. There are over 600,000 veterans in North Carolina, a population larger than several of the state’s biggest cities combined. He previously worked as opinion editor at Carolina Journal and as a Second Amendment research fellow at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, North Carolina.