Case Filing: LaBonte V. United States Brief Of Amicus Curiae

Mr. Schenk joined several other military law practitioners as amici in LaBonte v. United States, a case on appeal at the United States Circuit Court for the Federal Circuit. The case involves the authority of the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) to grant meaningful relief for members convicted by court-martial. Essentially a case of statutory interpretation, the lower court ruled that the BCMRs’ lack of authority to correct “related administrative records pertaining to court-martial cases” under 10 U.S.C. § 1552(f) includes DD-214s. The court therefore reasoned that Boards cannot award disability retirement to clearly unfit members because such relief would require prohibited changes to a DD-214. The bigger picture here is that, for many members, the conduct that lead to their court-martial conviction was caused or at least materially affected by mental health or other disabilities that, in other contexts, would have lead to disability separation. If the lower court’s reasoning stands, the BCMRs could not make any corrections to a member’s disability-retirement entitlement even in the face of egregious error or injustice. Mr. Schenk was honored to join a group of esteemed military-law practitioners and stellar attorneys at Cooley LLP to assist the efforts of the equally stellar student attorneys at the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic who initially brought the case.