(Pictured: Leigh Winstead, Bonnie Kelly, Anna Dryden)
The Mason Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic (M-VETS) successfully assisted two military families in filing and finalizing step-parent adoptions this fall. The first family of an active duty Marine sought the clinic’s assistance in finalizing the adoption of the Marine’s four-year-old stepdaughter. Read more
By Fall 2017 M-VETS Student-Advisor Bonnie Kelly
Seventy percent of American adults are overweight or obese.[1] Within the military about 7.8% of personnel are now considered overweight up from 1.6% in 2001.[2] Being overweight is unhealthy for anyone, but it causes specific problems for service members, including the possibility of administrative separation for weight control failure. Read more
The Mason Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic (“M-VETS”) recently finalized a divorce for an active duty servicemember in the United States Air Force after two years of drafting a property settlement agreement and navigating the divorce through the Fairfax County Circuit Court. Read more
By Summer 2017 M-VETS Student-Advisor
On July 26, 2017, President Trump issued a series of three tweets addressing transgender service in the U.S. Military. He declared:[1]
The President’s “policy pronouncement” directly contradicts implemented DOD policy still actively listed on DoD’s website here. Read more
Former M-VETS student-advisors were recently awarded the Emerging Leader in Public Service award and the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) Outstanding Student Award. M-VETS student-advisor Jamesian D. Emmanuel was awarded the Antonin Scalia Law School Emerging Leader in Public Service award for his contributions in public service while attending Scalia Law, while M-VETS student-advisor C.J. Read more
By Spring 2017 M-VETS Student-Advisor Monica Martinez
Native Americans have served our nation valiantly and with distinction in times of peace and war, while also fighting for the right to be an equal part of this very nation. To honor their legacy, Patriot Nations: Native Americans in Our Nation’s Armed Forces, an exhibition that tells the history of American Indian and Alaska Native men and women who have served in the United States military, will be available for viewing until January 18, 2018 at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C. Read more
By Spring 2017 M-VETS Student-Advisor Larry Lohmann
Last month President Trump signed the Veterans Choice Improvement Act, an extension of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 or Veterans Choice Act. The Act, originally passed and implemented during the Obama administration, requires hospital care and medical services to be furnished to veterans through agreements with specified non-Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities if the veterans do not live close to VA medical facilities. Read more
By Spring 2017 M-VETS Student-Advisor Rodger Nayak
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has sought to make it easier for certain veterans stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, between August 1, 1953, and December 31, 1987, to obtain disability compensation.
The VA awards disability compensation benefits to servicemen and women with injuries that were incurred or aggravated during active military service. Read more
By Spring 2017 M-VETS Student-Advisor Rebecca Eubank
When a servicemember is injured on active duty or diagnosed with a condition that leaves him unable to perform his assigned duties, his case is referred to the Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES). While this process can be long and at times confusing, knowing the possible outcomes at each step of the process should inform the servicemember’s decisions. Read more
Written By Spring 2017 M-VETS Student-Advisor Anne Kidd.
On December 23, 2016, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 (“FY17 NDAA”). The NDAA is an annual occurrence and is one-half of the federal budgetary process for the Department of Defense. Read more
