Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Three stars for three wise men back on track

Both the House and now the Senate have passed a revised version of the FY 2008 DOD Authorization Act. Here is an Army Times article about the Senate's vote. The President is expected to sign this version, which will give the JAGs a third star. But my understanding is that each JAG will be required to be reconfirmed before putting on the third star. Does anyone have good gouge on whether that understanding is correct?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

What has this to do with military justice? You can make the JAGs five star generals, and they still won't give a hoot about MilJus. Op law, international law, general litigation, installation law, environmental law, and personnel law always take precedence for them. MilJus is just a poor stepchild who only gets lipservice from the JAGs when they retire and want to be on NPR.

Jason Grover said...

Anon,
Don't know how you judge a JAGs interest in military justice, but on the Navy side, RADM McDonald recently pushed through a military justice litigation track in an attempt to improve the quality of the mil jus practice in the Navy JAG Corps. A concept that seems to have been talked about for twenty plus years. I cannot judge whether he prefers environmental law to military justice or not, but as the admiral himself has said on many occasions, judge him by results. And in this case at least, he has actually created a mil jus speciality track that should produce more talented litigators and better representation for the government and the defense down the road. Of course, it remains to be seen whether those selected for the track (for disclosures sake I am one of them) will get good assignments and get promoted. But RADM McDonald has certainly taken the idea further than anybody before him.

Jeff Stephens said...

Okay, here is the perennial Marine Corps gripe: because we don't have a JAG Corps, is our top lawyer going to forever remain a 1 star?

Jason Grover said...

That would be RADM MacDonald, my apologies!

Anonymous said...

Ensign Grover,
I created a career track for up-and-comers like you and how do you repay me? You drop my "a" like a lead balloon. Ingrate. I'll see you in my office on Monday.

Anonymous said...

What? No third or second star for the head Marine JA. Scandalous. Guess Lindsey Graham is only looking out for the Air Force. The Air Force has been driving this train for years. Too bad it finally got out of the station. Jagflation. Do the JAGs also get a new golf course and officers club?

Anonymous said...

Awww. Poor jarheads. Stuck with one star. LOL!!!

Anonymous said...

CMC used to be left out of the JSC. Not now. Times change. Perhaps Marines should be legitimately in the mix for "Navy" JAG.

John O'Connor said...

Anonymous:

If the Navy JAG is a three-star and the SJA to CMC is a one-star, Marines can't really compete for Navy JAG.

Granted, I'm sort of agnostic on whether the JAGs shopuld get a third star, or whether the SJA to CMC should get a second star, but in practical terms bumping up the JAGs and not SJA to CMC makes it practically impossible to also consider Marines as Navy JAG (again with no real view on whether they should be so considered anyway).

Anonymous said...

Don't Navy JAGs jump up two grades from Capt to RAdm? So a Marine can't jump two grades as well? Also, assuming that the JAG doesn't always come from the Deputy JAG RAdm slot, a Navy JAG would jump three grades, from Capt to VAdm, in becoming JAG.

Anonymous said...

The Marines do military justice...poorly. The Navy is marginally better. The Air Force are the real pros.

Anonymous said...

Is going to a good law school a requirement?

John O'Connor said...

Second-to-last anonymous, I can only hope that your post is meant to be sarcastic.

Anonymous said...

Is being disbarred the way the AF practices law? If so the benchmark is low enough to say they are the "real pros."