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¦ From A GROUP on PAGE 21 personally took part in numerous in-person and
another application containing evidence of qualify- telephonic calls with the U.S. Army and their rep-
ing mental health conditions. resentatives.
This affects all Army veterans, since Oct. 7, 2001. DeGuglielmo said he believes part of the reason for
The proposed agreement also calls on the review the denials of upgrades in status is due “to the long-
board to follow more liberal guidelines when decid- standing cultural aspect of the Army not taking mental
ing on upgrades. health conditions seriously. This is a government agen-
The parties expect a judge to sign off on a final cy and they took the easy way out. They thought, ‘Who
settlement in early 2021. out there would be scrutinizing all of these cases under
Yale Law School intern Andy DeGuglielmo was a microscope.’ And then we came along.”
one of the interns who worked on the case and pre- Military discharge status is important for many
sented information on behalf of veterans to the U.S. reasons, DeGuglielmo said.
Army. “There are certain GI bill benefits you can only get
DeGuglielmo said the two sides were able to reach with an honorable discharge. There is also the stig-
a settlement late Tuesday due, in part, to the volumes ma that comes with a less-than-honorable discharge
of records they presented to the U.S. Army. and it also makes employment harder,” DeGugliel-
“We pushed for extra record discovery. Here we mo said.
were challenging a systemic decadeslong practice. Other provisions of the settlement call for the U.S.
We received all decisions by the review board going Army to conduct annual training for review board
back to 2001. We saw a pattern of systemic denials members about certain mental health conditions
all the time. That pattern gave us leverage with the presented in applications they receive moving for-
judge,” DeGuglielmo said. ward.
DeGuglielmo continued: “The Army’s initial re- Representing the U.S. Army in the negotiations
sponse to several things we wanted was a hard ‘no.’ was Assistant U.S. Attorney Natalie Elicker, who
We had to be aggressive. One thing we did was show works out of the Department of Justice’s New Haven
them the pattern of systemic denials and we also office. Tom Carson, a spokesman for the office, de-
pointed out that the continuing negotiations would clined to comment Thursday.
be costly for both sides and it could affect the Army ¦

negatively.” Robert Storace covers legal trends, lawsuits and
DeGuglielmo, who said he joined the clinic and analysis for the Connecticut Law Tribune. Follow
the case because his grandfather was a Vietnam him on Twitter @RobertSCTLaw or reach him at
veteran who has a mental health condition, said he 203-437-5950.

Pa. Justices: Trump Lawyer
Was Not Blocked From Ballots

By Suzette Parmley

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday The 5-2 opinion dated Nov. 17 was delivered by Justice
reversed a Commonwealth Court ruling that Debra Todd. Justices Max Baer, Christine Donohue, Kev-
found a Trump campaign representative was in M. Dougherty and David N. Wecht joined the opinion.
denied adequate access to observe ballot canvassing Chief Justice Thomas Saylor and Justice Sallie Up-
in Philadelphia County during the Nov. 3 presiden- dyke Mundy both dissented. Mundy joined Saylor’s
tial election. dissent, as well as crafted one herself.

CONNECTICUT
Law Tribune