Professor Friedman alerts that two amicus briefs have been filed. The link to his brief does not work, but the one to NACDL does. As a reminder the QP is:
Whether statements to investigating police officers accusing someone of a crime and describing the offense after it has been completed fall outside the scope of the Confrontation Clause merely because the suspect remains at large or the declarant has been injure
Here is a posting on Above the Law about a Marine officer attending law school, and his Marine Corps future. It’s not clear if he’s there as a LEP’er. But I suspect he’s on his way to being a leper in a number of communities.
It’s a Scarlet Letter tale for the digital age. A Georgetown law student’s life has completely unraveled. His way of dealing with losing his wife, his mistress, his supposed baby, his military assignment, and good standing at Georgetown Law School? A public confession on Facebook.
CAAF’s journal for 22 June 2010 notes:
No. 10-0468/AR. U.S. v. Sonya M. WATSON. CCA 20080175. Review granted on the following issue:
WHETHER THE ARMY COURT ERRED WHEN IT RULED THAT APPELLANT’S ADMINISTRATIVE DISCHARGE WAS VOIDABLE AND PROPERLY REVOKED AND DID NOT REMIT THE ADJUDGED DISMISSAL.
Schaefer v. McHugh is the interesting case of an Army JAG who finagled a medical discharge, but then the orders were revoked, and upon return to the fold he received a GOMR. It’s not nice to have the Army pay for your law school education and then try to sneak out the back-door.
Malcolm Schaefer pointed to his bad knees as a reason to get out of his Army service. But Schaefer was an Army lawyer. Bad knees typically do not preclude service as a lawyer. The Army therefore rejected Schaefer’s request for discharge. But because of an administrative foul-up, Schaefer was able to obtain papers showing his legal discharge. Shortly afterwards, the Army informed Schaefer that he had to return to service. Schaefer did so, and the Army then took disciplinary action against him for his apparent shenanigans. In this litigation, Schaefer argues, in essence, that he beat the system by obtaining papers showing his discharge and that subsequent Army disciplinary actions against him were invalid. The District Court rejected Schaefer’s challenge, granting summary judgment to the Secretary of the Army. We affirm the judgment of the District Court.
Well, we have a general idea of what GEN McChrystal is accused of saying, as well of supposed statements of other officers. As I was driving home today I heard a story that he’d submitted a resignation – from the Army, or his current position? USA Today has this piece in which they report a resignation and a denial that a resignation has been submitted. There are so many puns about crystal and star gazing. But sadly there’ll be little humor in what’s going on. From a military justice practice perspective, how many clients have been accused and disciplined for similar types of disrespect?
The LA Times has this piece about the increasing politicalization of the military (something I somewhat tongue in cheek commented was behind LTC Lakin’s contumacy):
Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s criticism of Obama administration officials symbolizes an accelerated partisanship of the officer corps.
Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that:
Military officials have charged Staff Sgt. Rashad Valmont with murder in the fatal shooting of Master Sgt. Pedro Mercado at Fort Gillem, U.S. Army spokeswoman Maj. Lenora Hutchinson told the AJC on Tuesday.
The report then goes on to say that:
I. WHETHER THE MILITARY JUDGE ERRED IN CONCLUDING THAT NO SOLDIER AT FORWARD OPERATING BASE (FOB) LOYALTY HAD A REASONABLE EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY IN ANY REGARD.
II. WHETHER THE MILITARY JUDGE ERRED IN DENYING A MOTION TO SUPPRESS APPELLANT’S EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE AND PASSWORD PROTECTED LAPTOP WHEN THE
COMMANDER WHO ORDERED THE SEIZURE OF THE EQUIPMENT IMMEDIATELY SEARCHED THE EQUIPMENT UPON SEIZURE, DEMONSTRATING THAT HE WAS PERFORMING LAW ENFORCEMENT FUNCTIONS AND WAS NOT NEUTRAL AND
DETACHED WHEN SEIZING THE ITEMS.
Thanks to a nicely and newly redesigned JAA website, here is information this years Appellate Advocacy Symposium. This is good training and good for those all important CLE credits for civilian attorneys. (Note, VA gives full credit for this one day seminar. I just checked my CLE records and we were only given four hours for two days of the CAAF Judicial Conference this year. I believe this relates to written materials not being provided as part of the instruction. VA requires that there be some form of written handout or materials given out along with instructor bio’s, etc.)
APPELLATE ADVOCACY SYMPOSIUM
October 15th, 2010 8:00am-5:00pm
George Mason University School of Law
This event is co-sponsored by the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and the Judge Advocates Association. For information about this event, please contact CPT Joshua Johnson at: joshua.johnson34@us.army.mil.
Army Times reports that:
The military has released the name of the man allegedly shot to death by a fellow reservist at Fort Gillem.
An earlier release said that the name of the suspect would not be released until there were charges.
Texas senator is demanding answers from the Air Force on the current status of the 10 AWOL Afghan military deserters, which he called a breach of national security.
The initial number of Afghans being floated was 17. Now:
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog