Publications
This page collects book projects, litigation, and written work on military discharge justice, veterans' rights, and institutional accountability. The through-line is a single question: what happens when the institutions charged with correcting their own errors decline to do so, and what recourse remains for the people living with the consequences.
Books
One Nation, Indivisible
A book project about social cohesion, democratic stability, and the conditions that allow people to sustain a shared political life. In progress.
Writing
‘Bad Paper’ Discharges Brand Veterans for Life
The Nation, November 11, 2019. On the lifelong consequences of less-than-honorable discharges and the boards that review them.
Read at The Nation → Will US Military Leaders Ever Stand up to Trump?
The Nation, October 21, 2019. On dissent, civilian control, and the obligations of senior military leadership.
Read at The Nation → Litigation
Manker v. Del Toro (D. Conn., 2018–2022)
Named plaintiff in a nationwide class action challenging the Naval Discharge Review Board's treatment of veterans with PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and military sexual trauma. Filed in March 2018 with the National Veterans Council for Legal Redress, represented by the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic and Jenner & Block. The court certified a nationwide class, and the settlement — granted final approval on February 15, 2022 — requires the Navy to reconsider thousands of discharge-upgrade denials issued between March 2, 2012 and February 15, 2022.
Yale Law School case page → Case file at the Institute for Constitutional Military Law → Press
Coverage of the class action, from filing through final approval of the settlement.
Clinic Files Class Action On Behalf of Marine Corps Vets with PTSD
Yale Law School, March 2018.
Read the article → Navy agrees to reassess ‘bad paper’ discharges in pending lawsuit settlement
Stars and Stripes, October 21, 2021.
Read the article → Illinois Iraq war vet Tyson Manker with PTSD wins class-action suit against the Navy
Chicago Sun-Times, October 29, 2021.
Read the article → Court orders Navy to review thousands of ‘bad paper’ discharges
Stars and Stripes, February 17, 2022.
Read the article → Sailors and Marines with PTSD or other trauma to have their discharge upgrade cases reexamined
Navy Times, February 17, 2022.
Read the article →