On July 1, 2026, the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) filed a “friend of the Court” brief in Pereida v. Collins urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) to consider new scientific information that supports Ms. Pereida’s constitutional arguments that seek to invalidate the discriminatory and the unlawful denial of benefits to the children of veterans who suffer adverse health effects because their fathers rather than their mothers were exposed to toxins during wartime service to the nation. As noted in the brief, ” Agent Orange did not discriminate between male and female veterans when causing birth defects and other inherited disease in their children, and the VA cannot discriminate between male and female veterans, either.”
The Veterans of Foreign Wars and The Vietnam Veterans of America joined NVLSP to file the brief as amici curiae, or friends of the Court.
The veterans advocates filed their amicus curiae brief with the pro bono assistance of Paul Hastings LLP. You can read the full brief here.