Judge Certifies Class in Navy Discharge Upgrade case

Earlier this week, United States District Court Judge Charles Haight, Jr. granted class certification to the plaintiffs in Manker v. Spencer, 3:18-cv-372 (CSH).  Roughly stated, the nation-wide class is composed of Navy and Marine Corps veterans who received other than honorable discharges and suffer from PTSD, TBI, MST or other mental health diagnoses.  Both Department of Defense guidance memos and federal legislation have instructed military boards reviewing the status of such discharges to apply leniency in deciding requests by such veterans to upgrade their discharge status.  However, the Navy Discharge Review Board (which also covers the Marine Corps) has lagged in applying these policies as compared to the Army and Air Force Boards, which have been granting upgrade applications at around a 50% rate, whereas the Navy Board grants such applications at around a 15% rate.  A copy of the opinion can be found at 2018 WL 5995486 (D.Conn. Nov. 15, 2018).  Students from Yale’s Veterans Services Legal Clinic have played a major role in the litigation of the case.