Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Here we go again . . . military justice as second bite at the apple

Your editor served in the U.S. Coast Guard for three years, seven months, and eight days. He loves the Coast Guard (see below). But he does not love it when his old outfit prosecutes members for, among other things, essentially the same (apparently off-base) crimes of which they have been acquitted in state court. Click here for a case in point. The headline in the Alaska Dispatch News reads: "Man acquitted of child sex abuse after Kenai trial faces military charges."

It is respectfully submitted that the Framers did not intend that Congress's power to "makes Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces" (U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 14) would be used to create a backup system to prosecute military personnel who have been acquitted in local courts. Here endeth the rant.

Officer Candidate School 1969

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