Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Stevenson cert petition issue

Yesterday I noted the new military cert petition in Stevenson. Here's the QP:

Whether the exercise of court-martial jurisdiction over one of more than 93,000 disabled military retirees who do not receive military retired pay and have minimal, if any, contacts with the military exceeds Congress's authority under Article I, [section] 8, clause 14 to subject members of the "land and naval Forces" to a military justice system that does not comply with certain constitutional requirements, including the right to trial by jury?

2 comments:

Cloudesley Shovell said...

My previous speculation was correct--jurisdiction is the issue.

It would be interesting to see the Supreme Court address both this case and Denedo. In both cases, CAAF takes a very expansive view of its jurisdiction, contrary to the requirement that jurisdictional statutes be strictly construed.

John O'Connor said...

Interesting that the QP deals with the scope of Congress's Article I powers rather than the application of the due process clause. I wonder if that is desgined to try to avoid the military deference doctrine (which it might, I'd have to think about that).