Category: Updates (Page 2 of 4)

Civic Duty and Brain Drain: Challenges of an Afghan Pioneer

February 24, 2014 / hlsafa

When: Feb. 27, 2014 at noon

Where: HLS, Wasserstein Hall Room 2004

Shabana Basij-Rasikh did much of her learning under the Taliban. She traveled dressed as a boy and crammed into a crowded living room with a hundred other girls to receive an extremely rare–and extremely dangerous–education.

After the U.S. military invasion in 2001, a United States program called YES sent Shabana to Middlebury College in Vermont, where she graduated magna cum laude. She returned to Afghanistan to co-found the country’s first girl’s boarding and prep school with an American man, Ted Achilles. Ted had become disenchanted with the U.S. efforts to send young Afghans to foreign universities because, while Shabana was a success story, many students did not return to Afghanistan.

Join Shabana to discuss the challenges facing a pioneer in education: brain drain, student safety in an environment still hostile to women’s learning, and using education to create lasting Afghan and global stability.

This is an Armed Forces Association event sponsored by HLS WLA Women’s Venture Fund and cosponsored by Law and International Development Society.

Lunch will be provided.

John Bellinger on “The AUMF, Drones, Guantanamo, the NSA Controversy, and other national security law challenges for the Administration.”

February 5, 2014 / hlsafa

John Bellinger, a renowned national security and international public law expert, will be coming to speak at HLS on February 18, 2014, about “The AUMF, Drones, Guantanamo, the NSA Controversy, and other national security law challenges for the Administration.”

Please read Mr. Bellinger’s extensive and impressive biography here. Highlights, in addition to being a partner at Arnold & Porter, include: Legal Adviser to the Department of State from 2005 to 2009 under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House from 2001-2005. We are honored to welcome Mr. Bellinger and hope you can join us!

Time and Location: 5:30 pm, HLS Wasserstein Hall Room 2009

Sponsored by Harvard Law School Armed Forced Association and Arnold & Porter, with support from our cosponsors: Harvard National Security Journal, Harvard National Security and Law Association, and Harvard Law and International Development Society.

U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Affairs Decision Argued at HLS Helps Thousands of Veterans Whose Disability Claims Have Been Denied

January 18, 2014 / hlsafa

Originally posted on Yahoo!

In a decision that impacts thousands of veterans, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims has ruled that Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Wilson J. Ausmer, Jr., a highly decorated veteran, should be able to file an appeal of his disability claim even though he had missed the 120-day deadline to do so.

The case was argued in October 2013 at Harvard Law School before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims as part of the Veterans Legal Clinic of the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, which is administered through a partnership of Harvard, the law firm of Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick and DAV (Disabled American Veterans).

The precedent-setting decision paid particular note to the difficulties faced by those who served multiple deployments. LTC Ausmer was serving in Afghanistan on his second combat deployment in the Middle East when his disability claim was denied. The Court ruled the deadline should have been extended.

In its decision, the Court cited “the difficulties faced by service members returned from deployment to a combat zone” and noted that since “…the evidence establishes that the appellant had difficulty readjusting to civilian life, the Court finds that the appellant’s deployment and military service materially affected his ability to protect his legal rights under section 524.”

The Court stayed the appeal period for 90 days after LTC Ausmer’s military service was terminated so that his case can proceed.

The Veterans Court also decided that the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (“SCRA”) applies to proceedings before the Court. The Court applied SCRA and first found that the 120-day period did not begin to run until LTC Ausmer was discharged from active duty.

CCK’s and the Clinic’s interpretation of the Court’s ruling is that it effectively allows recently discharged veterans whose ability to file an appeal is “materially affected” by their service a full 210 days from the date of discharge to appeal adverse BVA decisions. This is a huge win for veterans’ rights, as the Court’s holding would logically extend to appeals filed at the VA as well. In Fiscal Year 2013, over a 100,000 appeals were filed at the VA.

Read original posting and full article here!

A review of HLS AFA activities on Veterans Day 2013

November 14, 2013 / hlsafa

Professor Jack Goldsmith lecturing on the implications of the Snowden leaks and the future of the war on Al Qaeda and affiliates from Veterans Day, 2013.

Professor Jack Goldsmith and HLS AFA co-President cutting a Veterans day cake before the noon lecture.

Dean Martha Minow and HLS AFA co-President cutting a Veterans Day cake in honor of all HLS Veterans.

Enlisting at Harvard Law School—a look at this year’s service members

November 12, 2013 / hlsafa

There are two Navy JAG Corps officers in the HLS LL.M. program this year, both with distinguished legal careers in the military. For the past five years, Stephen C. Reyes LL.M. ’14 served as lead defense counsel for a high-value prisoner facing capital charges in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay. Jacob W. Romelhardt LL.M. ’14 has had several deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, where he advised on detainee operations and helped negotiate policy with the Afghanistan government on detainees and on U.S. military special operations.

This year’s 1L class includes nine military veterans, including A. Zoe Bedell ’16, a former U.S. Marine, who helped create and implement a program in Afghanistan to engage female Marines with local women, and who is part of a lawsuit challenging the Department of Defense policy that excludes women from combat positions. In addition to the nine current 1Ls, there are six more students deferring their start because they are still on active duty. The 3L class has ten veterans; the 2L class has seventeen. Of these, fourteen are attending HLS through the Yellow Ribbon program, by which the U.S. Veterans Administration matches the amount a law school offers to pay for a veteran’s tuition and expenses. HLS makes the maximum commitment—50 percent—so that with the VA’s match, these veterans attend for free. Other veterans are funding their HLS education through the G.I. bill and student loans; the military covers the entire cost of the LL.M program.

Original post and more about these awesome veterans available here.