Five new judges for U.S. Army appellate court

Five new judges have joined the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. Judges on the court have renewable three-year terms of office under the Army's military justice regulation. (Their counterparts in the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force lack the protection of fixed terms of any duration.) The court's jurisdiction extends to capital cases, courts-martial involving punitive discharges or sentences of one year or more, and cases that do not meet the statutory jurisdictional threshold but are referred to the court by the Judge Advocate General. The court has no jurisdiction over nonjudicial punishment (the U.S. term for summary trials). The court's decisions are subject to review by the 15-year-term civilian judges of the five-member U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.