Friday, September 22, 2006

United States v. Lane

United States v. Lane will certainly rank as one of CAAF's most significant opinions from the 2006 term. The opinion relied on the Constitution's "Incompatability Clause," U.S. Const. art. I, § 6. cl. 2, to hold that a Member of Congress may not serve on a Court of Criminal Appeals in his capacity as a reserve officer. The majority opinion will no doubt receive thorough analysis. It may even generate a cert petition from the Solicitor General. But I was particularly struck by a portion of the dissent. Judge Crawford wrote: "If relief is to be granted, it should be granted prospectively and not to all cases on direct review. Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, 321-22 (1987)." (dissent at 13). The dissent further supports its argument for prospective application with citations to three pre-Griffith Supreme Court decisions in civil cases.

Griffith, however, stands for precisely the opposite conclusion. Here is the holding in Griffith: "We therefore hold that a new rule for the conduct of criminal prosecutions is to be applied retroactively to all cases, state or federal, pending on direct review or not yet final, with no exception for cases in which the new rule constitutes a 'clear break' with the past." 479 U.S. at 328.


The dissent accuses the Lane majority of ignoring precedent. But it is the dissent that ignores clear precedent when arguing for prosepective application of the majority's holding. Curiously, the dissent cites the very precedent that it ignores.

Posted by Dwight Sullivan (The opinions expressed are my personal opinions. I do not purport to be speaking for any other entity or individual.)

6 comments:

Jason Grover said...

Lane was certainly a fun and interesting case, but I disagree with the thought that it will be one of the most significant opinions of the term. Lane was a one-of-kind situation, presenting a novel constitutional issue. But consider some of the other cases that have come or are coming:

Moreno- will have much longer impact on military justice

Anthrax cases- still to come, but could hold that the entire DoD program was improper

Haney- Can appellate counsel be IAC for asking for enlargements

Quintanilla- Death sentence set aside

Loving- perhaps the entire RCM 1004 system set aside

Long- privacy interest in gov email

Magyari- some business records could be testimonial

Lane doesn't come close to being one of the most siginificant opinions of the term.

Dwight Sullivan said...

Since the Military Justice Act of 1983 extended the Supreme Court's certiorari jurisdiction to include decisions by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, I believe there have been only 10 cases in which the Supremes have heard oral argument to review a CAAF decision. Lane may well be the 11th. That would be a sufficient, but not necessary, condition to qualify as "significant."

Jason Grover said...

Does that mean McKeel is the other most significant case from this term? (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/06-58.htm)

M. T. Hall said...

Ironic that Lane comes out just as TIME does a 2-page profile on Lindsey Graham.

Marcus Fulton said...

What are the politics of the government asking for cert in Lane?
Seems like the administration would have some opinion regarding raising the visibility of this issue. My first guess is that no one in the executive branch would want to draw additional attention to Sen. Graham's JAG affiliation no matter what the context.

Any better guesses?

Jason Grover said...

Very true. Additionally, there are no real long-term negative consequences here for the government. So you can't put a Senator on a CCA. Big deal. The case doesn't establish horribly negative precedent for the government that needs to be corrected. I believe that the USAF might be intersted in approaching the SG, but I cannot believe the SG would actually petition the Supreme Court.